ISL: FC Pune City 1-1 Chennaiyin FC - 5 talking points

In an entertaining encounter at the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Shivaji Stadium in Pune, Chennaiyin FC were held to a 1-1 draw by a resilient FC Pune City. Kostas Katsouranis put Pune in front as early as the 9th minute. A slew of chances fell to both teams – a majority to Chennai – but it wasn’t until the 57th minute that John Stiven Mendoza restored parity.Pune went into the encounter on a high, with their previous two fixtures being wins against NorthEast United and Atletico de Kolkata, while Chennai had home draws against the same two teams. Chennai will go on to their next game against Atletico de Kolkata still wondering how they were unable to get three points from this fixture. Here are the five major talking points from the game:

#1 End-to-end beginning to the game

Chennaiyin FC had lost their last away match 4-1 in Delhi. That night, things went pear-shaped very early. Marco Materazzi was determined not to let that happen on this occasion as Chennai raced out of the blocks. A neat pass from Elano set up John Stiven Mendoza, whose swerving shot was somehow kept out by Arindam Bhattacharya.

Pune however, were not to be left behind. Israil Gurung’s fantastic cross was tapped home by Kostas Katsouranis, and Pune had taken the lead very much against the run of play. Chennai though had plenty more chances in the first half to draw level, but failed to take any of them.

#2 Elano is human too

This game will go down as the first Chennaiyin FC game which did not have Elano’s name on the scoresheet. It wasn’t as though the Brazilian didn’t impact the game. He was instrumental in whatever Chennai offered going forward. It was just that the end product deserted him.

He had a glorious opportunity soon after Kostas’s goal for Pune, but he sent his penalty well wide of Arindam’s post. Apart from that, he had many other efforts on goal, but lady luck wasn’t really on his effort. He curled a peach of a free-kick over the wall, and Arindam was well beaten, but the crossbar denied the Brazilian.

Elano however had the last laugh, as his ball forward caused confusion in the Pune rearguard, which Balwant and Mendoza took full advantage of and scored the equaliser.

#3 Arindam was at his best tonight

In the first thirty minutes, Chennai could have easily had two or three goals. Although Elano messed his spot kick, the major reason why Chennai couldn’t score was because of the man between the sticks.

He made two eye-catching saves in the game. One was from a swerving Mendoza shot, and the other was to stop Harmanjot Khabra’s header from point blank range.

Apart from this, Arindam was quick to come off his line, to catch balls and thwart Chennai. He ensured that the efforts of the Chennai full backs, Gouramangi Singh and Dhanachandra Singh were to no avail, as he was commanding in catching all those crosses which came into the area.

#4 Injuries hit Pune hard

Lenny Rodrigues and Bruno Cirillo have been pillars of strength for Pune and have been instrumental in their turnaround in the ISL. So, when both of them had to be taken off due to injuries, Franco Colomba’s plans were hit hard.

Lenny had been fantastic in midfield, allowing Kostas to roam around the pitch, and pose a goal threat. But with Lenny out, and their best centre back Cirillo joining him soon after, Kostas took on a much more defensive role, which effectively resulted in Pune’s demise as an attacking threat.

When Lenny was on the field, Kostas was offering fantastic support to Dudu, but for much of the second half, Dudu was isolated, and against two quality centre-backs in Mikael Silvestre and Materazzi, he was never able to pose much danger.

#5 Mendoza has the last laugh

It was almost as if there shoot at sight orders given to John Mendoza. He was desperately unlucky in the first half, as two fantastic shots didn’t give him any reward. One of them was a swerving shot which was awkwardly saved by Arindam while the other was a beautiful shot which went across a well-beaten Arindam, but he was denied by the upright.

The second half didn’t start much different as Mendoza did not give the Pune defenders a moment’s rest. His reward finally arrived, when he calmly slotted home after some grafting from Balwant. For his contributions throughout the match, he was rightly named ‘Hero of the Match’.