Atletico de Kolkata continued to falter at home as it was held to a goalless draw by visiting Chennaiyin FC here at the Salt Lake Stadium on Friday. Cheered by a big home crowd of around 46000, the Kolkata side saw its winless streak extending to the fourth straight match as its attack failed to conjure the decisive edge once again.
After experiencing its first loss at home against Pune City FC in the previous match, ATK suffered its fourth straight reverse at home. The only win for the host here was in the tournament opener on October 12.
Thereafter all its toil went waste as the home side played three draws and a loss to effectively endanger its position as the current leader of League. For the visitor, which played its fourth straight draw to pick up only four points out of a possible 12, the journey to the semifinals is now rendered more difficult. Both teams tallied 13 points from eight matches thereby opening up the tournament for the teams like Pune City FC and NorthEast United FC, which lie close behind.
The first half measured the strength of the opponents on an almost even scale as the two sides split the share of ball possession. The attacks were also evenly spread out making it an absorbing contest, which was upset a bit by the 11 minutes of power outage on the northern flank of the stadium.
The host earned the first opportunity in the 22nd minute when Firkru Lemessa played a one-two-one with midfielder Oftense Nato to split open up the Chennaiyin defence. But the Ethiopian striker angled too wide of the target and the host lost a veritable chance of finding the lead.
The visitor which sought to muffle its offensive instinct for the greater part of the opening session, despite enjoying a little edge over the host in terms of ball possession, fired up towards the approach of the break. As the match resumed after the power-cut, the Chennaiyin captain Elano Blumer almost found his header home but for a nice reflexive save by the ATK goalkeeper Subhasish Roy Chowdhury. The second half saw ATK attacking with more purpose and created a couple of good opportunities. The first one, a 62ndminute freekick from captain Luis Garcia came off the crosspiece while Firkru put another of his effort wide from close to the goalmouth.
Chennaiyin almost snatched a late winner as Balwant Singh deflected a cross from substitute Jean Eudes Maurice into the goal.
The goal was overruled by referee Pratap Singh, who hauled up the Chennaiyin striker for handling the ball.
The result: Atletico de Kolkata 0 drew with Chennaiyin FC 0. Man-of-the-match: Jofre Mateu (ATK).
