CHENNAI: It’s two down, two to go for Marco Materazzi and Chennaiyin FC. Little over a week ago, semifinal qualification looked a distant dream that hinged on all sorts of permutations. After two emphatic wins, and a couple of favourable results elsewhere, the picture is clearer. Two wins in the remaining two games and Chennaiyin will be in the semifinals.
Arguably, the easiest of the two games left will be on Tuesday at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, when Chennaiyin host Mumbai City FC. Nicolas Anelka’s team has not registered a win in six games and none of their three victories have been away from home.
Chennaiyin currently find themselves in fifth place with 16 points from 12 games. With Atletico de Kolkata, FC Goa and Delhi Dynamos FC having already booked their last four passage, the battle for the final spot has boiled down to three teams — Chennai, FC Pune City and NorthEast United FC.
NorthEast currently occupy fourth spot with 17 points, but have played a game more than both their rivals, while Pune are a point behind Chennai. Mumbai are still in with a mathematical chance, but face some outrageous odds to crawl back from the predicament they find themselves in.
For the home team, the form guide could not look rosier. Their last couple of games have yielded eight goals, with John Stiven Mendoza looking unstoppable at times. The form of Raphael Augusto and Bruno Pelissari also augurs well for the men in blue. But the fact remains that they are walking along the narrowest of ridges — one slip and there is no recovering from that fall.
Nerves, however, are not an issue for head coach Materazzi. “I said after the Kolkata game that everything depended on us. Our guys did well in creating chances (in their last two games against Kerala Blasters FC and Delhi). And now that they’ve learned a lesson, they’ll go for the third chance on Tuesday,” he said.
For Anelka, however, the game is all about salvaging pride. “Mathematically, we still have a chance, so we’ll be playing to win. We need to play our best, and the players need to believe in themselves,” he opined.
The Frenchman, though, will be missing on the pitch for Mumbai, having failed to recover from an injury. For Chennaiyin, Jayesh Rane is still injured, while Harmanjot Khabra is suspended after picking up his fourth yellow card against Delhi.