I-League 2017, Chennai City FC 1-2 Mohun Bagan - 5 Talking Points
Mohun Bagan eked out a hard-fought victory against Chennai City FC after they came back from behind to knock in two goals. Jeje Lalpekhlua and Sony Norde were on target for Bagan while Brazilian Marcos Vinicius scored the first goal for Chennai.
Vinicius drew first blood for Chennai City as he took advantage of a howler from Eduardo Ferreira. Ferreira, in an attempt to dribble the ball past Vinicius aka Tank, ended up gifting the ball to the forward.
The joy for the hosts was, however, short-lived as Jeje restored parity for the visitors when he flicked the ball in from close range after some stupendous work on the left wing by Sony Norde.
The Haitian star was the hero for Bagan again as he made up for his missed penalty, scoring the winner from a delightful long ball from Balwant. We will now sneak a peek into the five talking points that tipped the scales of the game:
#1 Sony Norde reigns supreme again
The man who was in the thick of things right from the first whistle to the last was Sony Norde. The Haitian had joined Mohun Bagan in the last match after missing the first two matches due to national duty. Sony held sway in the previous victory of Bagan as well, chipping in with valuable crosses and always keeping the Minerva custodian on his toes. It wasn’t any different in the encounter against Chennai either.
As early as in the 2nd minute, he sent in a scouring cross after another terrific run down the left, past Clement. The Chennai skipper, however, came to bail out his team, blocking the cross.
Norde could have notched himself up an early goal when young Subashish Bose sent in a delectable long ball for Sony, whose tame shot was collected by Karanjit. Minutes later, he unleashed another long-range shot from a rebound but the ball sailed over.
Norde earned Bagan the best opportunity of the half when he was tripped by Joseph Clement. In order to oust him of possession, he ended up putting too much power in his push which landed the Haitian on the ground and the referee straight away pointed to the spot.
Norde stepped up but to his disappointment, Karanjit pulled off a stunning save diving to his right to deny Bagan a goal.
He was back in the thick of things soon as and took on an inexorable run down the left wing and sped past three defenders in a canter. His brilliance was on show when he nutmegged the final defender to square off to Jeje, who calmly sent the ball home to restore parity.
Sony’s salvo finally paid dividends when he scored his first goal of the I-league. Balwant Singh, who came on as a substitute for the injured Darryl Duffy, whipped in a peach of a pass for Norde who latched onto it and slammed the ball past an onrushing Karanjit Singh, making it 2-1.
Ultimately the Haitian’s brilliance in the midfield was too hot for Chennai to handle.