ISL: NorthEast United FC 3-0 Chennaiyin FC - 5 Talking Points

NorthEast United, in the space of a few manic first half minutes, put three goals past table toppers Chennaiyin FC, as they notched up their first win in 7 games, with a commanding 3-0 scoreline. It was a day of delight for the partisan Guwahati crowd as NorthEast notched up only their second home win of the season. Durga Boro opened the scoring for NorthEast before Massamba Lo Sambou stepped up with two towering headers to all but knock Chennai out of the contest. As hard as Chennai tried to get back into the game, the NorthEast defense, led by the magnificent Miguel Garcia stood firm. Chennai were left ruing some slack defending, but NorthEast didn’t care, as they picked up a vital win which rocketed them from bottom of the table to 5th place. Here are five of the major talking points from the game.

#1 NorthEast fly off the blocks

At the start of the game, Chennai were a visibly weakened side, especially in defense, with Mikael Silvestre, Gouramangi Singh and Marco Materazzi missing from the starting eleven. Ricki Herbert sensed an opportunity there, and got his side attacking from the word go.

With Massamba, Miguel and Joan Capdevila manning a three-man defense, it allowed the wing backs Boithang Haokip and Zodingliana to bomb forward at will. 

Chennai were caught cold by NorthEast’s pace off the blocks, and the first goal, when it arrived, was no surprise. But, there was more than just a trifle of luck involved. Haokip’s cross was straight at Eric Djemba Djemba but the former Manchester United man’s clearance hit Len Doungel and fell kindly inthe path of Durga Boro who kept his omposure to put the ball past Gennaro Bracigliano.