Super Cup: Aizawl FC knock out ISL champs Chennaiyin in pre-quaters
Bhubaneswar, Mar 31 (PTI) Former I-League champions Aizawl FC knocked out reigning ISL champions Chennaiyin FC 5-3 via tie-breaker in a thrilling pre-quarter final encounter of the Super Cup Football tournament.
The teams were locked 2-2 at the end of the 120 minutes of slugfest that saw Romanian Andrei Ionescu strike twice for the I-League outfit while Chennaiyin came back twice during the dying moments -- first though Brazilian Mailson Alves in the 89th minute of the regulation time and then through Dhanachandra Singh in the 114th minute.
During the tie-breaker, former India player Mohammed Rafi missed the second penalty for the two-time ISL champions while Aizawl were on target with all their five shots.
It was Ionescu, whose long ranger took a wicked deflection beating Chennaiyin custodain Karanjit Singh as Aizawl took the lead in the 22nnd minute.
Mailson restored parity just a minute before the final whistle converting a rebound in the 89th minute.
At the start of the extra time, Ionescu once again scored with a precision strike as it looked that Aizawl went 2-1 up.
With six minutes for extra time to end, Chennaiyin's left back Dhanachandra Singj's low drive found the back of the net as the match went into a tie-breaker
