Durand Cup: Hyderabad FC beat 10-man Chennaiyin 3-1

Our Correspondent
Imphal, Aug 26. (EMN): Hyderabad FC (HFC) beat 10-man Chennaiyin FC (CFC) 3-1 to register their second win of the 131st IndianOil Durand Cup played here at the Khuman Lampak main Stadium on Friday. Bartholomew Ogbeche scored a brace for the winners in the second-half, while Joao Victor converted from the spot, after CFC had taken the lead through Anirudh Thapa just before the half-time whistle.

Hyderabad now has six points from two matches while Chennaiyin have one from the same number of games.

Chennaiyin FC started the first half on a bright note and maintained possession of the ball admirably. They created openings with their captain Anirudh Thapa making his presence in the pitch.

Chennaiyin took the lead through a stunner from the skipper. Sajal Bag played a long pass to Thapa’s running inside the rival’s box and the skipper finished delicately by taking the shot off balance, which stunned Hyderabad keeper Lakshmikant Kattimani.

HFC started the second half on the front foot with increasing attacks and the introduction of Bartholomew Ogbeche made the HFC attacks more menacing.

Akash Mishra’s repeated crosses from the left had the CFC defence scrambling and one such cross found Javier Siverio whose header was cleared off the line by Fallou Diagne. However, it was deemed to have been done with the hand and the Senegalese received the marching orders.

In the resulting penalty, HFC skipper Joao Victor made no mistake to even the scores at 1-1.

HFC took the lead in the 64th minute through Bart Ogbeche. A free kick from the right by Mohammed Yasir found a free Ogbeche inside the box who slammed in a powerful header to give his team the lead.

The 10-man CFC were finding it difficult to contain the HFC attacks which resulted in the third goal. Nim Dorjee’s cross from the right fell into no man’s land and it was retrieved by Lalchungnunga Chhangte. His pin-point cross for Ogbeche was well received and the Nigerian headed the ball into the net to claim his second goal.

CFC did attempt to salvage something from the game with a last ditch effort, but could not disturb the HFC defence. Hyderabad FC will play NEROCA FC on August 30 while Chennaiyin FC will play TRAU FC on September 1.