Chennai: In the run-up to his club’s every game, Chennai City FC manager, V. Soundararajan, takes due care in uttering all the right words, talks up his team’s chances, and fronts up to the media with a cheery disposition, giving the impression that all is well in his ranks.
While it has gone awry before, it went more or less to script on Wednesday against Bengaluru FC as the match ended in a 1-1 draw at the Nehru Stadium.
Bengaluru, recipients of raucous support from their faithful fans, have showed traces of redemption in their win against Minerva Punjab but will be far from satisfied with just a point.
There was nothing remarkable about the match itself as it followed the staid pattern of the weaker team, in this case Chennai, resisting the opponent’s advances with all their collective might.
The hosts had their captain D. Ravanan, and the Nigerian centre-back Anyichie Celestine to thank for as they were ever alert to any impending harm and warded off danger on more than one occasion.
Chennai were the first to score as defender John Johnson, who in his bid to head it away to safety, sent it into his own net in the 53rd minute.
That goal stirred defending champions into some belated rearguard action as five minutes later, the visitors pulled level through Daniel Lalhlimpuia, who turned in a rebound from Udanta Singh.
Bengaluru almost stole the tie late on when a powerful header from defender Juan Antonio Gonzalez was expertly cleared off the goal-line by a vigilant Debabrata Roy.
