NEW DELHI: Chennaiyin FC were held to a 0-0 draw by SC East Bengal at the GMC Stadium in Bambolim on Monday. It was a great chance for the two-time champions to move up the table especially considering their opposition had Ajay Chhetri sent off in the first-half but they could not make the numerical advantage count.
The result meant Chennaiyin remained sixth with 15 points from 12 games, while the Red and Golds continued to be in ninth place with 12 points from as many games.
Last year's runners-up have this habit of drawing most of their contests, and the same story continued as this was their sixth drawn encounter, the most along with their opponents on the night. Despite the numerical advantage, the team from Chennai did not seem to be capable of fashioning a clear-cut chance.
It was another drab contest, but Chennaiyin did make Debjit Majumder work but he was equal to most of the attempts. Enes Sipovic, Rahim Ali and Lallianzuala Chhangte had the best chances of the match.
Incidentally, this was the third time the Kolkata giants went a man down and on all three occasions they have managed to get a point from the game. Anthony Pilkington even had a couple of chances to win it for them but he could not get his second goal of the tournament. Robbie Fowler was once again not pleased with Rahul Kumar Gupta's decisions and made his displeasure known at the end of the game.
"Once again, the referee was against us. I cannot stress how many times things are going against us. The first one was never a yellow. And the ref chose to keep his cards in his pocket whenever our players got kicked. I'm happy with the resilience shown by the boys but not at all happy with the refereeing."
Csaba Laszlo has another headache to solve with Anirudh Thapa being withdrawn after complaining of a hamstring problem. They are already without their inspirational skipper Rafael Crivellaro. "Hopefully, he won't be out for too long. The medical team will have a look tomorrow."