ISL 2: Injury time goals help NorthEast United down Chennaiyin FC 2-0 in ill-tempered match

Guwahati Portuguese star midfielder Simao Sabrosa kept his cool to score a lastminute penalty and Nicolas Velez added another goal in added time as NorthEast United FC got the better of 10man Chennaiyin FC 20 in an illtempered Indian Super League ISL clash at the Indira Gandhi Stadium on TuesdayWith the win NorthEast have climbed a rung in the league table and are at the seventh place with three points from four games whereas Chennaiyin FC are now fifth with six points from four matchesNorthEast United FC coach Cesar Farias made as many as seven changes to his team including a debut for Cameroon defender Andre Bikey who has replaced injured captain Miguel Garcia and Holicharan Narzary who recovered from injury and made his debut for the NorthEast franchiseChennaiyin FC manager Marco Materazzi surprisingly put to bench big names like Elano Blumer and Stiven Mendoza who between them have scored seven goalsUnited started positively and could have surged ahead in the first minute itself Diomansy Kamara headed a ball for Francis Dadzie who cut inside and shot from just outside the box but his effort missed the target by a whiskerChennaiyin did not take too much time to settle down with Fikru Teferra and Jayesh Rane having good chances to give their team the leadNorthEast United had a chance to go ahead in the 38th minute when they were awarded a penalty A corner kick saw Alessandro Potenza pull down Cedric Hengbart and referee pointed to the spot Senegalese striker Kamara stepped up to take the spot kick but rival custodian Edel Bete guessed correctly and saved the shotThere was more drama after the penalty save as Khabra was issued the marching orders for aggressive behaviourIn the second session both teams made influential changes in an attempt to gain control While the visitors introduced Elano and Mendoza NorthEast United fielded Argentine attacker Velez and marquee player SabrosaNorthEast went close in the 65th minute when Dadzie laid the ball for Boithang Haokip who sensed an opportunity from inside the box but his shot was wide of the markAt the other end Mendoza beat his marker and then hoodwinked another one but his final attempt ballooned over the barJust when the match seemed like heading for a drawthe hosts won a penalty in the 89th minute after Jayesh Rane clattered into Sabrosa inside the danger zone Sabrosa made no mistake from the spotIn added time NorthEast made it 20 thanks to a lightning counter attack from which Velez scored without much trouble past the onrushing BeteThe match which saw one red and 10 yellow cards beingshown by the referee witnessed many heated moments with theplayers almost exchanging blows at times Chennaiyin playedwith 10 men from the 40th minute onwards after HarmanjotKhabra was given a straight red card by the referee forviolent conductBefore the half time NorthEast head coach Cesar Fariasand his Chennaiyin counterpart Marco Materazzi exchangedheated words from their respective touchlines This broughtplayers and officials from both sides facetoface and on theverge of exchanging blows and the match was interrupted forabout five minutesThe visiting teams captain Bernard Mendy chased Fariasand he had to be stopped physically by other players and therefereeAfter the referee blew the final whistle Mendy againchased Farias and this time the players of both the sides wereinvolved in a scuffle The referee had to intervene andsecurity officials prevented the situation from worseningfurther in front of the nearly 20000 crowd at the IndiraGandhi StadiumIn the 77th minute NorthEast Uniteds Sabrosa andChennaiyins Mehrajuddin Wadoo got involved in a faceoff andboth were shown the yellow cards