I-League 2017: Chennai City FC vs East Bengal, Player Ratings
East Bengal ran away as 2-1 winners when they faced Chennai City FC in Coimbatore yesterday. Both the teams came into the game on the back of wins against the same opposition Churchill Brothers, and left it really late to snatch all three points in their last game.
Khalid Jamil's men wanted the three points to stay within reach of the League leaders Minerva Punjab while Chennai wanted the three points to move up the points table. There were doubts regarding whether the match would be played or not given the state of the playing turf in Coimbatore which looked more like a patch of paddy field rather than a football field, but play went on as scheduled.
The Red and Gold brigade started the game on a bright note as they started a wave of attacks rights from the onset while Chennai looked to measure the side from Kolkata. East Bengal though went two ahead within 31 minutes but Chennai pulled one back in the 43rd minute and the teams went into the half time with the score reading 2-1 in favour for the visitors.
The second half was in truth a cagey affair with East Bengal taking their foot of the gas and playing a safe game trying not to exert too much as the chances of injury on such a surface was very high. The game ended 2-1 in favour of East Bengal and with this win East Bengal moved to the second spot of the league. On that note lets take a look at the player ratings of from the game:
Chennai City FC
Uros Poljanec (7.5/10): Poljanec the Chennai shot stopper was awarded the man of the match on the night. Even though he saw Charles score through a looping header, he did a great job of keeping a lot of East Bengal attacks at bay. His positioning and shot stopping was also really good.
Venyamin Shumeyko (6/10): The defender for Chennai was not upto his best today, as he had a hard time keeping in check the likes of Plaza and Charles. He was also at fault for completely making a hash of a relatively easy situation to allow Charles to score the second goal for East Bengal.
Dharmaraj Ravanan (6/10): Ravanan had an average game in true sense. He put in some good tackles to stop Plaza and Charles but was also in some situations when he was beaten with relative ease by the East Bengal attackers.
Sebastian Thangmuansang (6.5/10): Sebastian tried hard to keep the East Bengal wingers at bay but wasn’t very successful, but he did venture forward whenever the situation arised.
Pradeep Mohanraj (6.5/10): The veteran of Indian football took a lot of long rangers and tried to keep a tight check on the East Bengal midfielders, but eventually the quality of Amna and Katsumi prevailed.
Sydney Vanspaul (7/10): Vanspaul worked really hard today, he won a lot of second balls for Chennai and also took a couple of shots at Luis Barreto’s goal.
Jean Joachim (6/10): Jean tried his best to get his name on the scoresheet but was denied by the East Bengal custodian and defence. His link up play was also a bit below par today.
Charles Anandraj (5.5/10): Charles tried his best to keep a check on the East Bengal midfield but was overrun by the likes of Katsumi, his tracking back was also not upto the mark today and he failed to impress with his linkup too.
Alexander Romario Jesuraj (7/10): Jesuraj did score a good goal, and it gave Chennai a lifeline in the game, but he failed to do his midfield duties properly. He was also beaten by the like Amna, and Rafique with ease and allowed the East Bengal midfields tons of space in the middle of the park.
Michael Soosai Raj (6.5/10): It was Soosai Raj’s long throw that resulted in the goal for Chennai, and he kept on trying hard to get his side an advantage in the final third. He was also one of the better players for Chennai during the span of 90mins.
Pandiyan Sinivasan (5.5/10): The right winger for Chennai failed to get in crosses into the box and Chullova had a relatively easy time keeping him in check.