I-League: Chennai stun Churchill to emerge out of relegation zone

Representational pictureRelegationthreatened Chennai City FC stunned Churchill Brothers 31 in an ILeague encounter here at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on Saturday The result saw the southern outfit leapfrog the Goan side to emerge out of the drop zone With a superior headtohead record Chennai City edged past Gokulam Kerala FC and Churchill Brothers to the seventh spot on the points table with all three sides tied at 16 points The Red Machines were pushed to the relegation spot but have a game in hand over ChennaiAleksandar Rakic opened the scoring in the 26th minute before Michael Soosairaj scored a brace 29th and 54th minutes with both the goals coming off goalkeeping gaffes But Monday Osagie scored a consolation goal in the third minute of injury time The hosts made two alterations from their last game Antony Beautin and Alexander Romario Jesuraj arrived in place of Asif Kotttayil and JeanMichael Joachim Alfred Fernandes had three of his own from their long travel from Neroca Uttam Rai Israil Gurung and Mechac Koffi made a comeback Harshad Naik Bektur Talgat and Wayne Vaz were taken out from the playing elevenChurchill Brothers made quite the impression in the opening few minutes as the deadly pair of wingers Nicholas Fernandes to the left and Uttam Rai to the right fed few chances to the strikers However the hosts came back strong Led by skipper Michael Soosairaj Chennai tested the resolve of the Churchill defenders and the deadlock was finally broken in the 26th minute Serbian forward Aleksandar Rakics deadly strike went over the defenders in the box and lodged into the top corner of the net thanks to a quick angled pass from JesurajOnly three minutes later James Kithans goalkeeping howler helped the hosts double their lead Soosairaj hardly thought his shot from 30 yards would yield something but the Nagalandborn keeper fumbled twice and the ball too took a sharp spin landing on a dry patch as the Red Machines conceded an unlucky goal With two goals down in the first half hour it was time for Alfred Fernandes to ring in the changes Kalu Ogba and then Mechac Koffi were sacrificed for Bektur Talgat and Suraj Singh as Churchill went ultradefensive in the remaining time of the first halfThere was no respite in the second period as well Soosairaj brought up his brace nine minutes after the restart Jesurajs grounded shot was parried off by an outstretched Kithan but the loose ball was only picked up by the playmaker as he nudged the ball into the net That prompted Fernandes to remove Kithan at once as his midgame replacement Ricardo Cardozo too was not sight for sore eyes with his questionable positioning between the sticks However some wayward shots from Rakic and secondhalf substitute JeanMichael Joachim did not ruffle his feathers as Chennai could not add to their three goalsChurchill could not claw back into the game but did get a consolation goal from a setpiece Dawda Ceesays flag kick forced a goalmouth melee but defender Monday Osagie snatched the ball from Kim DongHyeon and hit it past a hapless Kabir ThaufiqCatch up on all the latest sports news and updates here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updatesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Except for the change in headline the story has been provided ASIS AS AVAILABLE without any verification or editing from our side Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason