FULL-TIME! Chennaiyin FC knock Mumbai City out! First-half goals by CK Vineeth and Jeje Lalpekhlua send Chennaiyin into the Quarters, where they will face the winner from the clash between NEROCA and NorthEast United.
78' Mumbai have a free-kick about 30 yards out on the right. An tempting spot for Bipin Singh, whose left-footed inward curler misses the right post by inches.
67' Frustration growing for Mumbai City as Pranjal Bhumij goes into the referee's book for a foul on Gregory Nelson Yellow - Pranjal Bhumij (Mumbai City)
61' Bipin floats a free-kick from the left, which is blocked at the near post by Mailson Alves. The ball rises in the air and Karanjit leaps above the defenders to catch it and prevent the danger.
58' The Man of the Hour comes on. After missing the entire Chennaiyin ISL season due to injury, Dhanpal finally returns to the pitch. OFF - Chris Herd ON - Dhanpal Ganesh
52' Vineeth FIRES from distance! What a game he's had so far. And he almost breaks through again. Ravi Kumar is forced to make a save as Vineeth's tries to pick the bottom-left corner with an effort from 30 yards out.
49' SAVED! Corner for Mumbai City. Bipin Singh delivers it deep to Souvik, who sets up Goian for the shot. The Romanian defender fires it to the bottom-right but Karanjit pushes it out.
PEEEEEEEEEEEP! Chennaiyin light up the first half with two quick goals. First, a wonderful curler by CK Vineeth, which is early contender for the best goal of the Super Cup. Barely a minute later, Jeje Lalpekhlua starts and completes a move to send his team 2-0 up in this Round-of-16 clash. Mumbai will find it hard to catch up now but let's see what unfolds in the second half. Stay tuned!
43' TWO-UP! And it's Jeje Lalpekhlua who gets the goal. Jeje combines for a one-two with Thoi Singh to score his 4th goal of the season. Jeje stops his run at the edge of the box and Vineeth attracts the attention of two defenders. Thoi plays it accurately for the Mizo striker, who flicks it to the top-left corner.
42' GOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLL, Chennaiyin FC!! CK Vineeth with a peach of a shot! Boy, what a way to get off the mark. Controlling the ball on the left, Vineeth curls it to the far post and sees the ball through it all for a wonderful goal.
31' Raynier goes long. And it's a powerful one at that. The midfielder has acres of space ahead of him. He takes a touch and picks out the bottom-left corner, forcing Chennaiyin goalkeeper Karanjit Singh to make a diving save.
29' GOOOOOOOOAAAAA-OFFFF! Gregory Nelson completely misses the header and Eli Sabia is all by himself at the left post. He controls the cross and shoots past Ravi Kumar into the bottom right corner but the linesman had raised the flag!
28' TIPPED OVER! A delightful free-kick by Issac, heading to the top of the bar. But Ravi Kumar gets his fingers to it and prevents what would have been a certain goal.
26' Gregory Nelson slices it through for Issac, completely playing it across through the defence. But the Chennaiyin midfielder's cross is poor. It's chested down by the Souvik Chakrabarti for Ravi Kumar to collect.
24' OFF TARGET! Jeje with ample amount of space on the left. He controls the lob with a deft touch, sways to the left further and takes a poke at the far post, shooting wide.
22' Vignesh shows his skill on the left, dragging the ball to the right and then chipping it over the defender for Alen Deory. The Mumbai striker, however, fails to make anything of the chance.
11' PLAYED LONG TWICE! Bipin Singh receives a wonderful ball that's lifted over the Chennaiyin defence. The ball bounces over Chennaiyin goalkeeper Karanjit Singh and leaves the goal wide open. Bipin Singh, however, is unable to control it. Seconds later, he is in the middle of the park and does a better job in bringing the long ball down. But it's Mailson this time who parries the danger.
7' Strangely, Chennaiyin get the first shot on target as CK Vineeth towers over the defence to head the ball straight to Mumbai City goalkeeper Ravi Kumar off the cross by Anirudh Thapa.
5' A promising move by Sanju Pradhan on the right flank. The Mumbai midfielder scurries through the amount of space at his disposal. But he doesn't play the cross in time and Eli Sabia blocks his attempted cut-back from the touchline!
1' PEEEEEEP! Not many - barely any - people in the stands. But the turf looks lush green and it must be quite nice to have a game of football here! Mumbai City with the early possession.
While all the talk has been about how disappointing Chennaiyin's season has been, they will be glad to welcome back Dhanpal Ganesh, who is playing his first match of the season! Dhanpal was out injured all this while and is on the bench for the Super Cup clash against Mumbai City.
We were supposed to have seen 4 matches of the Super Cup by now. However, we only got to see Kerala Blasters go down to a gritty Indian Arrows side after the I-League clubs decided to first withdraw from the tournament and then reconsider their decision once the AIFF responded to them.
We're about 25 minutes from kick-off of the first Super Cup Round of 16 match between Chennaiyin and Mumbai City. On paper, Chennaiyin have the advantage given the amount of talent their foreigners possess but could the Indian brigade of Mumbai spring a surprise?
Rooted in Indian culture. Lucian Goian is an amazing man. Apart from knowing the Indian National Anthem word for word, the Mumbai City defender has also picked up a bit of Punjabi, according to his teammate Amrinder Singh. “He is so much invested in the Indian culture now that he has started to pick up the language quite often. That helps a lot when we are in clutch situations on the pitch,” Amrinder said in an interview. “He hangs out with me a lot off the field. So he has picked the Punjabi language through the songs. It was a huge surprise for me when I first saw him singing along to a Punjabi song.”
Youngsters to the fore! We can see that both teams have rested some of their experienced campaigners. Subhasish Bose is on the bench for Mumbai City, while Raphael Augusto is on the substitutes' list keeping in mind the AFC Cup match against Minerva Punjab on April 3.
Line-ups: Chennaiyin Playing XI Karanjit Singh (GK), Tondonba Singh, Gregory Nelson, Jeje Lalpekhlua, Eli Sabia, Anirudh Thapa, Issac Vanmalsawma, Laldinliana R, Mailson Alves (captain), Chris Herd, CK Vineeth
Mumbai City Playing XI Ravi Kumar (GK), Anwar Ali, Milan Singh, Mohammed Rafique (captain), Raynier Fernandes, Sanju Pradhan, Lucian Goian, Vignesh D, Souvik Chakrabarti, Alen Deory, Bipin Singh
Chennaiyin coach John Gregory says the team will take inspiration from the AFC Cup win over Colombo FC and their progress into group stages of the tournament. Commenting ahead of their Chennaiyin v Mumbai City Super Cup match, Gregory said: “Yes, it (AFC Cup win) has given us good confidence. Jeje Lalpekhlua has had a difficult season along with the rest of us. But he scored in the Colombo game. He scored the match-winner. That’s put a big smile on his face. On the training ground, the players have been excellent, working very hard.”
Starting strong. Mumbai City coach Jorge Costa says the team is confident of going deep in the Super Cup. “We are here to do our best. We respect this competition a lot. It is the last competition of the season and we want to finish well. We will try to do our best. We will try to go as far as possible starting from tomorrow’s game. It’s a game we want to win 100%," Costa said before the match.
It's a match-up we've all seen before but this time, it will be played in the Hero Super Cup 2019. Mumbai City FC look to salvage their semifinal exit in the Indian Super League with a fabulous performance in the Hero Super Cup. Their first challenge in the Round of 16 is the side that finished bottom of the table in the ISL - Chennaiyin FC.
Mumbai City's Jorge Costa has taken a big gamble by naming a squad with only one foreigner - Lucian Goian. This means that there's no Modou Sougou, Rafael Bastos, Arnold Issoko, Matias Mirabaje and Pablo Machado for Mumbai - guys who starred in Mumbai City's ISL campaign.
On the plus side, there are a lot of Indian youngsters in the squad and it will be interesting to see how they rank up against Chennaiyin, who have 5 foreigners - Chris Herd, Eli Sabia, Raphael Augusto, Mailson Alves and Gregory Nelson.
A huge boost for Chennaiyin is the return of defensive midfielder Dhanpal Ganesh from a long injury absence.
The Super Cup is being played at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar, Odisha. Last year, the tournament was held in Cuttack, Bhubaneswar's twin city.
The soaring heat in Cuttack was a decisive factor for many clubs' poor performances last year but this time, the matches will be played at 5 pm and 8.30 pm.
One man who will be looking to improve his tally tremendously is Chennaiyin striker Jeje Lalpekhlua. The Mizo striker has scored just 3 goals this entire season - one against Bengaluru FC in the ISL, one against Colombo FC in the AFC Cup and the other one for India at the Asian Cup.
If Chennaiyin go through, they will also have to manage their AFC Cup fixture against Minerva Punjab in Ahmedabad on April 3.
The winner of this clash will face the winner of the April 3 Super Cup clash between NEROCA and NorthEast United. This quarterfinal has been scheduled for April 7.
When and where to watch: The Chennaiyin v Mumbai City Super Cup Round-of-16 match will be shown on Star Sports 3, Hotstar and Jio TV. The kick-off is at 8.30 pm IST.
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