Some astounding performance from Bruno Pelissari, Jeje Steven and goal machine Steven Mendoza helped Chennaiyin FC thrash Atletico de Kolkata 3-0 in Pune in the 1st leg of the second semi-final of the Indian Super League (ISL) season II.
ATK wasn’t anywhere like the team it were during the league phase as it produced their worst performance of the league whereas Chennaiyin produced a spirited show which helped them to crush the defending champions so easily. Chennaiyin, desmite missing some key players came out victorious.
Let’s take a look at the heroes and zeroes from the match:
Atletico de Kolkata:
Heroes:
1) Dejan Lekic: Lekic was introduced in place of injured skipper Borja and he was the only person who troubled the rival defence occassionaly. He tried to create a few moves but could not do much in front of the solid Chennaiyin defence.
Zeroes:
1) Ian Hume: A lot was expected from Hume but this was just not his night. He could hardly make any impact with the ball as the compact Chennaiyin defence rendered him ineffective.
2) Amrinder Singh: He tried to be Manual Neuer as he was constantly venturing out of his desired area to sweep the ball away. He was lucky twice but on the third occasion, Mendoza got the better of him and casted Chennaiyin's second of the match and his 12th goal of the season.
3) Antonio Lopez Habas: ATK's head coach was totally wrong in his approach in this match as he resorted to an ultra-defensive strategy which just misfired. Or how would he justify substituting-in form Sameegh Doutie with Baljit Sahni. Sahni had no match practice and also could not contribute much to his team.
Chennaiyin FC:
Heroes:
1) Steven Mendoza: He scored one and assisted one. He has shaped himself to be the best striker in the ISL this season and rightfully walked away with the Hero of the Match award.
2) Jeje Lalpekhlua: He played the second fiddle to Mendoza in his match as he scored one and assisted brilliantly during Mendoza's goal.
3) Bruno Pelissari: He scored an absolute screamer through a free-kick which gave Chennaiyin the lead in the first half. He was playing in the place of suspended Elano and did his job too well in the midfield.
4) Bernard Mendy: He was leading the Chennaiyin defence from the front and under his leadership, Hume, Doutie and Arata were kept at bay.
By Dipayan Saha
