NEROCA denies Chennai City a victory

Following the draw, Chennai City remains seventh on the table with five points while NEROCA FC stays one place below with four points. CCFC started with an unchanged line-up as the trio of Fito, Pedro Manzi and Sandro Rodriguez were unavailable. The host started the game on a positive note by dominating possession from the onset.

After launching a number of attacks, Chennai City took the lead in the 26th minute. Japanese Katsumi Yusa, who was fouled inside the box by a NEROCA defender, stepped up to take the ensuing penalty and converted it with ease. Six minute later, the home team doubled its lead.

An inch-perfect cross into the box by Jockson Dhas found Mashoor Shereef, who headed the ball in from close range. It was now up to NEROCA to make a comeback before it headed into half-time. With Chennai City poised to go into the second half with a two-goal lead, the tourist struck in added time through Khaiminthang Lhungdim.

NEROCA stepped up the pressure on Chennai City after the change of ends. Even after playing a more pressing game, the away side wasn’t able to break the defence, but a careless mistake by the CCFC led to a foul inside the box on Boubacar Diarra. In the 65th minute, Diarra himself stepped up to take the penalty and scored from the spot-kick to make it 2-2.

Chennai City was not ready to let it go and switched the gear but none of its players were able to edge past NEROCA captain and keeper Marvin Devon Phillip.

In the 82nd minute, CCFC launched a counter-attack and a perfect cross from the right-wing ended at the feet of Katsumi but he couldn’t control the ball and the chance went begging. Within a few moments, Katsumi again found himself one-on-one with the Neroca keeper but this time Phillip came out victorious.