FC Pune City and Chennaiyin FC played out a 1-1 draw to complete their first leg of the Hero Indian Super League. Kostas Katsouranis gave Pune the lead in the first half which was cancelled out by John Mendoza in the beginning of second half. The match was highlighted by a series of missed chances by Chennaiyin, Elano’s penalty miss and Arindam’s superb goalkeeping.

The game started on a high note as both the teams took an attacking approach. Pune City’s influential midfielder John Goossens missed the match due to injury concerns and Ivan Bolado replaced him in the starting line-up. FC Pune City took the lead in the 9th minute from a Kostas Katsouranis strike. The Greek midfielder made a superb run from midfield. He passed the ball to Israil Gurung on right side. Gurung dodge passed the opponent defender and floated a cross towards Kostas who easily found the back of the net. After conceding the first goal Chennaiyin started attacking. Their Colombian striker John Mendoza worked extremely hard up front creating many chances. In the 13th minute Elano got a free-kick. His curling shot was met by Khabra who headed the ball but Arindam Bhattacharya showed great reflex and saved the goal. Materazzi earned a penalty for his team in the 15th minute when he went down due to a foul by Davide Magliocchetti. Elano went forward to take the penalty and to everyone’s surprise failed to convert it. Chennaiyin kept on pressurizing and it almost became Arindam vs Chennaiyin FC. Around the 30

Around the 30th minute mark Mendoza earned a free-kick just outside the box. Elano curled it but unfortunately it again struck the cross-bar. At the end moments of first half Dudu received a ball from Pune’s counter-attack outside the penalty box and Mikel Silvestre fouled the Nigerian. David Colomba took the free-kick but was blocked by opponent defenders. The first half summed up to be a half of missed chances for Chennaiyin.

FC Pune City regained control in second half. Their attacks where improving and they where dominating more. Around the 58th minute mark, Chennaiyin capitalized a defensive lapse from Pune and John Mendoza equalized from a cool headed finish. The rest of second half witnessed equal play by both the teams without any positive chance being created.

A win could see either of the two teams claiming the top spot in the league, but today’s draw kept the top half of the league table unchanged. Chennaiyin remains at the second position with equal points (12) alongside Atletico De Kolkata and FC Pune City, just a point behind, remains at the third position.

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