Chennai Indian Super League's (ISL) highly-anticipated opener in the second season between Chennaiyin FC and defending champions Atletico de Kolkata here lived up to its hype and expectation as the two teams played an entertaining tie at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Chennai, which ended in a starry debut for Helder Postiga, who scored two goals on his ISL debut in a 3-2 win for the visitors.
Kolkata got off to a perfect start as a brace by Postiga and a goal from Valdo helped them take all three points against The hosts.
Portuguese Postiga scored in the 13th and the 70th minute and the super-sub Valdosta found his name on the score sheet in the 76th minute to hand them a 3-2 win. Only bad news for ATK was that their Man-of-the-Match Postiga was stretchered off giving the title-holders a scare.
Elano scored a late goal on a controversial penalty after Jeje had scored in the 31st minute to ake it 1-1 but it was not enough as they stuttered in front of their home crowd.
The contest got off to a pretty lively start with Chennaiyin FC getting things underway and their marquee player Elano winning the corner in the very first minute but the Brazilian's delivery was headed wide by striker Jeje.
There was a minor stoppage just after two minutes as a dog entered the field which produced lots of giggles in the stands, but as soon as the match restarted, Iain Hume was fouled by Thoi Singh. The resulting free-kick ended in first player being booked in ISL 2 as Harmanjot Singh Khabra was yellow-carderd for handling the ball outside the area.
The first goal of the season came in the 13th minute after Portugese striker Postiga broke the deadlock for the champions. Borja Fernandez's free-kick saw the home team goalie Edel made a meal of a simple ball and gifted Postiga his first league goal. It saw the home crowd going absolutely silent with the shock.
The home team nearly equalised a minute later but Fikru's shot was inches wide of the target. Elano's peach of a ball found Fikru unmarked but his shot missed the far post by not much. The former Kolkata player had another decent chance to equalise but once again his shot in the 20th minute was wide of the target.
Chasing the match, Chennaiyin went all out and made their possession play count in the 33rd minute thanks to the Indian striker Jeje. Once again the attack was set up by Elano whose inch-perfect ball in the middle for Fikru saw the goalie and a striker collide but the ball fell nicely for Jeje and the former Pune FC striker made it 1-1.
From there on till the half-time, Chennaiyin were the better side but did not have any clear-cut chances as both the sides went into the breather level at one goal apiece.
The second half started with Chennai replacing Mailson Alves with Bernard Mendy in the 47th minute. Meanwhile, Kolkata looked much more sharp and dangerous in their play with Hume linked up well with others in the half that saw two goals, an injury and a penalty save.
The home team had a great opportunity early in the half against the run of play thanks to a brilliant counter-attack led by Elano. His pass to Jeje was accurate but the Indian player was guilty of not shooting, rather he gave a poor pass back to the Brazilian. Minutes later, ATK came close to taking the lead but Gavilan's brilliant free-kick hit the post much to the relief of Chennaiyin goalie.
Just when it seemed both teams are content with a 1-1 draw, Postiga scored his second goal to give the away team 2-1 lead thanks to a poor defending by substitute Mendy. Mendy back-passed it which was intercepted by Postiga who finished the move through the legs of the keeper but injured himself in the process and had to be stretchered off.
Postiga was replaced by Valdo who scored minutes after coming on. ATK could have made 4-1 but Javi Lara's penalty was brilliantly saved by the Chennai goalie. On the other end Elano scored from the spot to make an interesting last few minutes but ATK held on for three points.
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