CALCUTTA (India): Mohammedan Sporting thrashed Chennaiyin FC Reserves 4-0 in their Group B fixture of the 2nd Division I-League on Thursday.
Sanjib Ghosh (45′), John Chidi (59′), Balwinder Singh (67′) and Jaskaranpreet Singh (86′) scored for the winners.
Mohammedan made two changes to the side — Hira Mondal and Jiten Mumru replaced Sujit Sadhu and Firoz Ali.
The team’s technical director Dipendu Biswas said, “It’s a nice win for us. Credit to the boys they have done well as they followed what we told them to do.”
The local side relied on passing game that often had the visitors giving chase rather than being able to control the game themselves.
There were a slew of chances for the Black Panthers but they were thwarted each time either by the penalty area management from Joel Aju, or their own difficulties finding the target.
Chennaiyin, on the other hand, started the match with the deep defensive block, so deep at times that the full 11 members of the squad were sitting deep in their own half.
The break eventually came for the Black Panthers in the very last minute of the first-half when Sanjib latched onto a long ball over the back-line and fired it past an approaching Joel to give his side the lead going into the breather.
Chennaiyin came out of the sheds much stronger than they’d appeared in the first-half, playing some decent football and stringing together some good passages of play, however they were repeatedly denied by their hosts, and forced to deal with a wave of rapid counter attacks.
Chidi increased the lead in the 59th minute while Balwinder headed home a Tirthankar Sarkar corner to make it 3-0 in the eight minutes later.
Thereafter, Mohammedan SC continued to dominate proceedings creating multiple chances for Vanlalbiaa Chhangte and Tirthankar up front.
Vanlalbiaa should have made it 4-0 in the 82nd minute when a perfect cross was supplied to him across the face of goal by Hira, but the Mizo winger failed to tap it in from close range.
Four minutes later Jaskaranpreet put the final nail in the coffin with a powerful shot from outside the box into the top right corner.
The Black Panthers will face Hyderabad FC Reserves at Gachibowli Stadium in Hyderabad on February 26.
