After a raft of chances that went abegging, John Mendoza finally struck home to salvage a 1-1 draw for Chennaiyin FC against FC Pune City in the Hero Indian Super League at the Shree Shiv Chhatrpati Sports Complex here on Tuesday.
The-22-year-old Colombian’s 58th-minute strike cancelled out the ninth-minute goal by Kostas Katsouranis.
After threatening the home side for a major part of the match, Mendoza finally beat goalkeeper Arindham Bhattacharya following some good work done in the penalty area by Balwant Singh. Mendoza was declared fittest player and Hero of the match.
At the end of the hard-fought contest, both teams will be happy with the outcome. Chennaiyin FC moved to 12 points and Pune to 11 and retained their second and third positions behind Atletico de Kolkata.
It was a day when Elano Blumer missed a penalty and did not find his name on the scoresheet for the first time in the league.
Almost everyone on the pitch raised the bar by several notches in the first session; especially after the home team’s energetic and brawny Katsouranis beat Chennaiyin FC’s French goalkeeper Gennaro Bracigliano to score the opener.
The sparse crowd erupted in celebration even as the Greek midfielder ran towards the team dug out.
Earlier both goalkeepers — first the home team’s Bhattacharya and then Bracigliano — came into action as they parried shots directed at them. Mendoza seemed to be omnipresent in the rival area and his fifth-minute curling effort was saved by Bhattacharya.
Then, almost against the run of play, Katsouranis outpaced the man marking him — Denson Devdas — and drove in off his right foot; all as a result of a creative short aerial cross into the penalty area from Ismail Gurung on the right.
Form then on it was a pulsating encounter as Chennaiyin FC exerted every sinew to find the equaliser.
Mendoza was again unlucky as his 21st-minute left-footer came off the far post.
Then Chennaiyin FC missed what should have been the equaliser; Elano driving his penalty wide of the right post. A little earlier his free-kick nearly saw Hamanjot Khabra almost head home, but once again Bhattacharya came in the way.
There were more misses to follow.
A free-kick following a foul on Marco Materazzi — Magliocchetti got a yellow card for this — failed to find its mark. Bhattacharya again thwarted Mendoza before Elano’s free-kick hit the cross-piece following a foul by Bruno Cirillo on Mendoza.
The hectic first session ended with Davide Colomba hitting a shot off the mark. The home team was outplayed between the time Katsouranis scored and the few tries it had in injury time.
The home team took the field without David Trezeguet and Chennaiyin FC without Bernard Mendy because of an unspecified injury.
The result:
FC Pune City 1 (Kostas Katsouranis 9) drew with Chennaiyin FC 1 (Mendoza 58).
