Chennaiyin FC and Bengaluru FC had to settle for a point each in their Hero Indian Super League (ISL) encounter that ended 1-1 at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here on Friday.
Roy Krishna scored inside five minutes to give the Blues an early advantage but Prasanth Karuthadathkuni scored at the stroke of half-time to restore parity. The Marina Machans finished the game with ten men after goalkeeper Debjit Majumder was sent-off late in the second half.It did not take long for the first goal as Roy Krishna silenced the stands of the Marina Arena in the fourth minute. From the right flank, Siva Narayanan bent a cross into the box with the outside of his right foot. Krishna nestled the ball into the Chennayin FC net with a sublime glancing header. From there on, it was the home team that took control of the game for large parts of the game.
The Marina Machans had a marvellous opportunity to square things up in the 15th minute. Ajith Kumar cut the ball back from inside the box to Prasanth Karuthadathkuni. The midfielder’s strike was straight at Gurpreet Sandhu, who caught the ball with ease. Had the shot been placed on either side of the goalkeeper, Chennaiyin would have been level.