Chennaiyin FC ended their 133rd Durand Cup campaign with a 2-1 win over Assam Rifles Football Team (ARFT), in a Group D game played here on Sunday evening at the JRD Tata Sports Complex stadium. Jefferson Nongrud gave the Riflemen the lead in the final quarter of the second-half only for Romario Jesuraj to equalise through a penalty conversion. Praful then headed home the winner from a corner by Vishal, which was the last attack of the game.
The Marina Machans will end the group in third place with three points, with the Assam Rifles being the wooden-spooners of the group, having lost all three of their games. The game between Jamshedpur and Army XI will decided the group toppers as both have won their respective two games till now.
The match began with both coaches knowing that they had no chances to qualify from the group. Luntinmang Haokip was brought in by Assam coach Vikas Panthi in attack to replace midfielder Karan Chhetri from the previous game’s starting 11, while Noel Wilson the Marina Machan’s gaffer also made one change, but went for a straight swap with Vincy Barretto in the forward line, who started in place of Vishal.
Chennaiyin were definitely the better side in the first 45-minutes with Komal Thatal conjuring as many as three chances for himself, but none managed to break the deadlock.
The second-half saw a little more enterprise, especially from Chennaiyin and Irfan Yadwad got himself a few chances. A bicycle-kick attempt on the hour mark to a cross from the right wing stood out and just missed the target.
After Noel replaced Komal with Vivek just after the hour mark, a golden opportunity came Irfan’s way yet again after Vishal put him through inside the Assam box but his flick past keeper Shobhan Dev Biswas, was well deflected away by him, from the path of a following up Vincy Barretto. The young keeper had yet another good display.
The first goal then came quite against the run of play. A ball from the left wing was floated into the Chennaiyin box by Larinchhana. As Marina Machans skipper Bikash Yumnam prepared to take control of it, Haokip converged on the ball at the same time distracted him, and it dropped in-front of the far post in between keeper Samik Mitra and Jefferson Nongrud. The latter reached first to barely deflect a header past Samik and into the Chennaiyin goal.
A stung Chennaiyin then doubled up on their search for an equaliser and one of Irfan’s forays into the box led to him being brought down by Samujal Rabha and the referee duly pointing to spot, where the experienced Jesuraj made no mistake.
With the game almost going towards a draw, another of Irfan’s attempts was thwarted away by Shobhan for a corner. With seconds left for the final whistle, Praful leapt well, ahead of his marker off Vishal’s delivery and guided the header home past Shobhan, who was left rooted to the spot.
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