New Delhi: Whatever Punjab FC coach Panagiotis Dilmperis said in his half time team talk, it must have rubbed off on his players as they turned around a one goal deficit to conquer Chennaiyin FC 3-2 in their home Indian Super League clash on Thursday.
Three days of constant nurturing from hosts Punjab made the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium turf fit to play following damages by Diljit Dosanjh’s Dil-Luminati concert.
Punjab though couldn’t have blamed the pitch for their subdudeness in the first half when Chennaiyin showed greater urge and duly scored just before the water break on the half hour mark.
Ivan Novoselec failed to intercept Lukas Brambilla’s through ball that allowed Wilmar Jordan to lift the ball past an onrushing Ravi Kumar, scoring against his former club on return to his old stomping ground.
Apart from the goal nothing much was worthy of mentioning in the first 45 minutes as another Jordan tap-in from a Connor Shields corner was chalked off for a foul by Ryan Edwards.
Punjab failed to retain possession and were pegged back in the half far too often in the first half with Luka Majcen slamming his left footed volley wide from inside the box just before referee’s whistle.
But all that changed within 30 seconds of the game’s restart as Filip Mrzljak typical driving run and subsequent release allowed Majcen to mark his return to competitive action following a jaw fracture against Kerala Blasters with a goal.
It became better within three minutes as Punjab played with a spring in their steps as Lhungdim exchanged passes on the right flank to open up space for a squared pass for the protective mask-wearing Majcen to tap-in his second.
The match turned on its head in the space of three minutes as a shocked Chennaiyin coach Owen Coyle could hardly belief how his team had failed to switched on once action resumed.
Once they grabbed lead, Punjab were in no mood to slack off like Chennaiyin and even they benefitted from Mrzljak’s hamstring pull on 59 minutes.
His substitute Asmir Suljic increased their lead as he slotted him from close range following fellow substitute Mushagalusha’s Bakenga centre after running to Ezequiel Vidal’s ovehead ball.
CFC didn’t know what hit them and by the time they gathered their bearings for Jordan to reduce the margin, bundling the ball in, not much time left to rescue the game.
Punjab’s fourth win in five games moved them to third spot with 12 points as Chennaiyin stayed on sixth place with eight points.
