ISL 2015: Chennaiyin FC beat Delhi Dynamos 4-0 to move up to fourth in the table
Chennaiyin FC beat Delhi Dynamos 4-0 at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Chennai on Tuesday night to stay well in the hunt for a playoff spot. Goals from Stiven Mendoza, Bruno Pelissari and Jeje Lalpekhlua gave the south Indian side a commanding 3-0 lead in the first half. Jeje then scored again in the second half to seal an important win for Marco Materazzi’s side who now move into the top four with 16 points – two points behind Roberto Carlos’s Delhi Dynamos.
First Half: Chennaiyin tear Delhi Dynamos apart
Marco Materazzi made one change to the team that convincingly beat Kerala Blasters 4-1, as Mailson Alves took the place of the suspended Alessandro Potenza. Delhi were unchanged from the 3-1 win over Pune. Delhi started the game with a statement, as Chennaiyin's talisman Stiven Mendoza was welcomed with a few hefty challenges. Delhi made it clear that there would be no leeway for the man leading the race for the Golden Boot.
Chennaiyin had the first real sight of goal, as Thoi Singh's cross whizzed past the face of goal, with no one on the end of it. In the 12th minute, Delhi should have had the lead when Adil Nabi found himself a pocket of space and played Florent Malouda through on goal, but the Frenchman's shot was weak and off target,
Delhi were made to pay for that missed opportunity as four minutes later, Chennaiyin took the lead through Mendoza. Jeje Lalpekhlua's hopeful long ball should have been booted to safety by Antonio Doblas but the Delhi goalkeeper made a hash of his header which fell straight for Mendoza to put the ball past a desperate Anas Edathodika to send the home crowd into raptures.
Delhi nearly leveled things straight away as Chicao's shot from 30 yards out was smartly saved by Edel. The goalkeeper caught the resulting corner and launched the ball up towards Pelissari, but the young Brazilian's shot was just wide of the post.
Soon after though, Pelissari got his goal. A mistake from Edathodika saw Mendoza in possession and he set Pelissari away, whose cut back to Mendoza was immediately passed on to Jeje. His initial shot was brilliantly saved one-on-one by Doblas, but the rebound fell to Pelissari, and he curled the ball perfectly past a horde of Delhi players on the goal line.
It was all Chennaiyin and they had a couple more opportunities to extend their lead, but Pelissari and Raphael Augusto both shot over the bar. Robin Singh was next to threaten and his shot from the left corner of the box had to be parried over the bar by Edel.
Chennaiyin then extended their lead with a sumptuously taken goal from Jeje. Chicao’s cross-field pass was charged down by Raphael to set Mendoza away. The pair of them exchanged passes before Mendoza crossed low from the left wing, to leave Jeje with the easy task of slotting the ball past Doblas.
3-0 down, Roberto Carlos had to change something and he reacted by taking Nabi off to be replaced by Richard Gadze. Chennaiyin saw the half through with a nearly three-minute spell where Delhi were not allowed to touch the ball. That exemplified the half, as a rampant Chennaiyin tore Delhi apart.
Second Half: Jeje finishes night with two goals
The second half started with a lull, with neither side threatening for the first eight minutes. Chennaiyin were comfortable in defence as Delhi were looking desperately to find a way past, having brought on Hans Mulder at half time to replace Vinicius de Souza.
In the 53rd minute, it became 4-0 to Chennaiyin as Jeje scored his second of the night. More fabulous play from Raphael released Mendoza down the right and his shot was blocked by Edathodika but straight into Jeje's path. And the man from Mizoram had the simplest of tap-ins into an empty net.
Chennaiyin were rampant, and Materazzi decided that Mendoza had played enough. But Elano came on to replace him so Delhi couldn't breathe easy. The first negative for Chennaiyin on the night came in the 58th minute when Harmanjot Khabra picked up a yellow card – his fourth of the season. He will miss the next game against Mumbai City FC on 1 December.
Chennaiyin soon won a free-kick in Elano territory, as Pelissari was brought down. But as has been the norm this season, the team’s marquee player was wayward from the dead ball situation.
Carlos made his final change as Florent Malouda was replaced by Gustavo dos Santos, and Delhi's best player from last season took only a couple of minutes to get a shot away, but it was wayward. Materazzi then did something very rarely seen in the ISL, as Chennaiyin would finish the game with 7 Indians on the pitch. Raphael and Pelissari were replaced by Godwin Franco and Balwant Singh.
Chennaiyin were still very comfortable as Delhi offered very little in terms of an attacking threat. Delhi's midfield was non-existent, and that reduced Robin to feeding on scraps. In the end, it was far from the tough game that Materazzi expected as Chennaiyin absolutely blew Delhi away, and climbed to 4th in the league, ahead of NorthEast United only on goal difference.