Lineups -
Chennaiyin FC: Gennaro Bracigliano; Abhishek Das, Bernard Mendy, Gouramangi Singh, Mikael Silvestre; Denson Devadas, Elano Blumer, Harmanjot Khabra; S, Balwant Singh
Substitutes: Marco Materazzi, Cristian Hidalgo, Jairo Suarez, Shilton Paul, Jeje Lalpekhlua, Dhanachandra Singh, Bruno Pelissari
Kerala Blasters FC: David James; Nirmal Chettri, Cedric Hengbart, Gurwinder Singh, Sandesh Jhingan; Mehtab Hossain, Victor Herrero Forcada, Penn Orji, Avinabo; Iain Hume, CS Sabeeth
Substitutes: Stephen Pearson, Michael Chopra, Saumik Dey, Renedy Singh, Ishfaq Ahmed, Raphael Romey, Andrew Barisic, Colin Faley, Pedro Gusmao, Milagres Gonsalves, Sandip Nandy
Chennaiyin FC began their home leg of the touenament with a 2-1 win over Kerala Blasters. The Abhishek Bacchhan owned team were propelled to all 3 points by Frenchman Bernard Mendy’s super strike.
The hosts began their game on particularly offensive not as they drew a save from David James in 4th minute. Kerala were struggling to hold onto the ball for longer spells as they constantly gave away their possession rather cheaply.
Finally home side went ahead with a penalty from Elano as Abhishek Das was fouled inside the box by Gurwinder Singh.
Kerala equalised rightaway in the second half through defender Iain Hume who after failed first attempt buried the ball home in second. Kerala were a transformed side post interval.
But the hosts were in no mood to relinquish their claim from the South Indian derby and they struck back in some style as former Hull city man Mendy scored a stunning bicycle kick from a delicious cross from Elano.
Sachin Tendulkar’s team are now winless in two games, both away, will look to get some points when they open their home campaign next week.
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