FC Goa 1-2 Chennaiyin FC: 5 talking points

 At the end of a bruising encounter at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Fatorda, it was Marco Materazzi’s Chennaiyin FC who came away with the three points against an FC Goa side, who might feel rather aggrieved to be going away from this fixture with no points. Balwant Singh opened the scoring for Chennai with a slightly fortuitous effort before a sublime free kick from Chennai’s marquee player, Elano put the visitors in command at half time. But FC Goa came firing out of the blocks after the restart, and were only thwarted by some resolute Chennai defending and could not get the equalizer.Here are the 5 major talking points from the game:

#1 The Chennai formation

Marco Materazzi decided that 3 at the back was the way Chennai were going to go. And it did work for the Italian as his 3 centre backs put in commanding displays. 

Under the able leadership of Mikael Silvestre, Bernard Mendy and Gouramangi Singh did not put a foot wrong throughout the game, although Silvestre will be held liable as he was caught flat footed for the one goal that Chennai conceded. 

What also helped Materazzi was that his wing backs Abhishek Das and Dhanachandra Singh were always full of energy, thwarting whatever the Goa wingers had to offer.