The arrival of Alessandro Nesta, the 2006 Italian World Cup winner, and the return of the league’s top scorer Elano Blumer should give Chennaiyin FC the much-needed boost as it takes on Kerala Blasters FC in the semifinal of the Hero Indian Super League at the Nehru Stadium here on Saturday.
It’s a team that finished on top in the league phase but things have not been very good for Chennai in the last few games. The side lost just three games in the whole league but two of them have come in its last four encounters. And there were big defeats too — 3-0 to NorthEast United and 3-1 to Goa.
Chennai has been the league’s top scorer, with 24 goals, but it has also been very generous, conceding 20, a record bettered only by Mumbai City FC which finished near the bottom of the eight-team table. The Chennai defence was also a letdown in the second half in its last game, against Delhi Dynamos, which it nearly lost.
Kerala Blasters, which has let in the least number of goals (11), would be trying to motivate itself with these chinks in Chennai’s armour to push for a win in the ‘home’ semifinal before it travels for the away game.
Interesting duel It will be an interesting duel between the league’s top-scoring team against the lowest-scoring side (Blasters has just nine goals from 14 games) but which also has the best record in defence.
The presence of Nesta, one of the world’s best defenders in his prime, and the high-flying Elano Blumer, who had missed Chennai’s last few games with an injury, could make the big difference.
“We’ve conceded the least number of goals, so we are playing well defensively, and if we can stop them from scoring, we’ll probably be alive in the tournament,” said Blasters coach Trevor Morgan. “We have enough defensive players in our team than the opposition and that’s a good thing.”
Chennai has won both its home and away games against the Kerala team, 2-1 and 1-0, and its last visit here saw a record 61,000 crowd and the David James’ men will be banking on that sort of a roaring stadium for its strikers to come good and to go for a win.
