Chennaiyin FC: Bracigliano (gk), Khabra, Silvestre, Nesta, Suarez, Denson, Djordjic, Dane, Pelissari, Jeje, Balwant
Delhi Dynamos: Hout (gk), Shouvik, Houben, Anwar, Adil, Dinis, Mulder, Francis, Shylo, Junker, Marmentini
Alessandro Del Piero inspires Dynamos to a spirited draw at Nehru Stadium as they spoil league leaders’ home finale with a 2-2 draw.
The players knew what was needed from this tie and it ought to be a no holds barred match for the Ornaje and they did just that as they came back from dead in second half as Del Piero and Hans Mulder saved the hopes of qualifying for the semi-finals.
Chennaiyin took the game by the scruff of its neck as they opened the scoring in 16th minute with Bruno Pelissari did a David Beckham by scoring from a corner. The audacity of the goal left Delhi shell shocked and they seemed to be losing their plot as they were playing erratically in order to get level.
Their star man Mads Junker got injured in the first half which saw the introduction of the legendary Alessandro Del Piero, who brought a much required calm in Delhi’s build up play in the final third.
Marco Materazzi’s boys arguably scored the best team goal of this season’s ISL as a superb link up play between Jeje, Balwant and Khabra put Delhi on the mat as Jeje netted his first and Chennaiyin’s second to put them in the driver’s seat.
Despite a certain first half, second half was an antithesis of it as Delhi hunted down a complacent side who was trying to have some fun in this match.
Del Piero scored in 53rd to start Dynamos’ comeback with a sublime free kick which starts the fightback from Oranje. The hosts then took the control of the game but failed to keep Delhi in check as they looked threatening with each move of theirs. The visitors got their reward very late in the match as Gustavo’s header set up Hans Mulder who leveled things up for the capital side.
Delhi will have to hope that Atletico de Kolkata lose by a huge margin in order to qualify fro the semis.
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