NEW DELHI: A late own goal from Enes Sipovic handed Chennaiyin FC a 0-1 loss against Jamshedpur FC at the GMC Stadium Bambolim on Wednesday.
It was their sixth defeat of the campaign and might just be the final nail in the coffin for their hopes of making the knockout stages.
The two-time champions remain eighth with 17 points from as many games. With three matches left, Csaba Laszlo's team not only need to win all three but will have to depend on the result of other teams. The narrow win was a huge boost for Jamshedpur as they climbed to sixth with 21 points from 17 games, only two points behind the team in fourth.
Owen Coyle knows a thing or two about making the knockouts from an improbable situation when he achieved the feat with the Marina Machans last season. And it looks like he could be well on his way to repeating the same feat with his new club.
The sad thing for Chennaiyin will be the fact that this was the sixth time the team failed to score a goal in a game. Thoi Singh had a chance to seal all three points right at the death but surprisingly he tried to pass to Lallianzuala Chhangte instead of taking the shot on.
And football can be a cruel game and it was again on display as 20 seconds later, David Grande's shot took a wicket deflection off Sipovic and it flew into the net. Jamshedpur did not register a single shot on target, compared to Chennaiyin’s four but still ended on the winning side.
Laszlo was understandably morose at the end of the game. "We have to go out and play football. We have 3 games to go and with this game playoff may not be possible. But as sportsmen we need to try and win those games.
Today, the better team lost. On days like these it's very painful. I don't understand Thoi's decision to pass and then we are punished with an own goal. I feel sorry for the boys."
Last year's runners-up have not been helped with the fact that they lost their inspirational skipper Rafael Crivellaro due to injury while Anirudh Thapa was also not available for Wednesday's clash. Coyle refused to get carried away with the result though the fact that they achieved the result without their leading goalscorer Nerijus Valskis pleased the manager.
"I said to the boys to keep pressing. I hope Valskis is okay for the game against ATK. They gave everything in terms of effort and quality. We have done well with not having full compliment of foreigners for most of season. We deserved the win over he course of the game."