FC Goa faced Chennaiyin FC in a Hero Indian Super League (ISL) match at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Fatorda today.

FC Goa had a good start in front of an impressive crowd as the hosts put early pressure on the Chennaiyin FC defence with several runs in the early minutes.

It took around 25 minutes for Chennaiyin FC to find them settled into the game and the visitors even took the lead as Balwant Singh took advantage of poor defending by FC Goa.

Chennaiyin FC increased the lead minutes before the half-time when former Brazilian international Elano put the ball to the back of the net with a wonderfull free kick.

FC Goa were desperate to score a goal and to get them back into the game. But Chennaiyin FC displayed some good defensive play and the FC Goa players had their difficulties to find some space in the box.

The hosts finally scored their much awaited goal in the 65th minute when Grégory Arnolin tapped in the ball from a short distance.

FC Goa coach Zico brought on Ranti Martins Soleye as a late substitute and the striker almost found the equalisier. But he was denied by a great save by Chennaiyin’s goalkeeper Gennaro Bracigliano.

The match ended in favour of the visitors as Chennaiyin FC secured a vital 2-1 away win in their first match of the Hero Indian Super League (ISL)

2014 Hero Indian Super League
at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Fatorda

FC GOA 1-2 CHENNAIYIN FC

GOALS
0-1 Balwant Singh (32′)
0-2 Elano (42′)
1-2 Grégory Arnolin (65′)

LINE-UPS

FC Goa
1 Jan Šeda – 22 Prabir Das, 5 Youness Bengelloun, 15 Grégory Arnolin, 3 Narayan Das – 6 Peter Carvalho – 14 Gabriel Fernandes, 10 Edgar Marcelino (58′ 16 Bruno Pinheiro), 7 Robert Pirès [C], 11 Holicharan Narzary (62′ 24 Clifford Miranda) – 9 Miguel Herlein (78′ 25 Ranti Martins Soleye)

Unused Subs
21 Laxmikant Kattimani – 2 Debabrata Roy, 4 Rowilson Rodrigues, 8 Alwyn George, 12 Bikramjit Singh, 18 Zohib Islam Amiri, 26 Tolgay Ozbey, 27 André Santos,

Chennaiyin FC
1 Gennaro Bracigliano – 15 Abhishek Das, 19 Gouramangi Moirangthem Singh, 27 Mikaël Silvestre, 5 Bernard Mendy, 25 Dhanachandra Singh – 7 Elano [C] (67′ 14 John Stiven Mendoza), 13 Denson Devadas, 10 Bojan Djordjic (76′ 2 Jairo Suárez) – 20 Bruno Pelissari, 17 Balwant Singh (80′ 12 Jeje Lalpekhlua)

Unused Subs
22 Shilton Paul – 3 Sukhwinder Singh, 8 Cristian Hidalgo, 23 Marco Materazzi

MATCH OFFICIALS

Referee
Chris Penso (USA)

Assistant Referees
…, …

Fourth Official
…

BOOKINGS

Yellow Cards
17′ Abhishek Das (Chennaiyin FC)
38′ Elano (Chennaiyin FC)
44′ Narayan Das (FC Goa)
51′ Denson Devadas (Chennaiyin FC)

Yellow-Red Cards
none

Red Cards
none

MAN OF THE MATCH

Balwant Singh (Chennaiyin FC)