ISL 2017/18 Final: Set-pieces and set plans help Chennaiyin FC win second title

Bengaluru FC started on the frontfoot. While both sides were unable to get any meaningful possession in the first five minutes, Udanta Singh’s raging runs down the flank started taking a toll on the Chennaiyin defence. The moment came in the ninth minute of the match with Miku playing Udanta in down the right. The latter made a cross that took a deflection off Mailson Alves. Chhetri got at the end of it and his header put the ball past Karanjit Singh. The crowd got what it wanted and it went wild. Unfortunately for them, that turned out to be the last time that they were jubilant that night.

Chennaiyin boss John Gregory had spoken about set pieces in the pre-match press conference. They have been Chennaiyin’s strong point this season and it reflects the high regard he holds for taking advantage of those situations “from a defensive point of view and the attacking sense as well.” “If you do it right, you don’t concede goals, and get opportunities to score at the other end,” he said. They did it right and Bengaluru didn’t.

A little under 10 minutes after Chhetri’s goal, Chennaiyin won a corner. Gregory Nelson curled it in and Mailson Alves managed to keep his header on target. 1-1, game on. The second goal would come only in the last minute of the first half but Chennaiyin have the infallible Inigo Calderon to thank for not going behind in that time. He blocked a powerful shot from Dimas amd the shot had come because, for once, Chennaiyin could not clear a corner effectively.

It was a feature of the night. Chennaiyin defended with everything they had and caught Bengaluru on the counter. Calderon won the fittest player of the season award in the post-match presentation and John Gregory said that he was not surprised at all. Gregory knew the the 36-year-old Spaniard from his days at Brighton and Hove Albion, a club Gregory himself played for between 1979 and 1981.

You could swap Chennaiyin’s second goal for the first and no one would know the difference. Mailson Alves got his header on target once again and Bengaluru FC had to walk back to their dressing room trailing 2-1, Chhetri’s goal holding little value. The goal came at a point when Bengaluru were lining up a substitution for the injured Dimas. They were hence defending with 10 men, something that Chennayin took advantage of to the full.

The home side came out firing in the second half but Chennaiyin had them where they wanted now. As Gregory would say later, they just stuck to the game plan that had worked for them this season. He had compared Miku and Sunil Chhetri to FC Goa’s Manule Lanzarotte and Coro. “We stopped them in the semi-finals and we won the match,” he said. They almost did the same for Chhetri and Miku but Raphael Augusto’s goal was the one that made a comeback practically impossible for Bengaluru.

The home side were hogging the ball at that point and the game was being played almost exclusively in the Chennaiyin half of the pitch. Gregory Nelson then broke away and tore down the pitch before playing Jeje through. The latter could not get his first touch right but somehow managed to get the ball to Augusto at the edge of the box. The Brazilian took one touch before curling it into the bottom right. It was all done so quickly that the stadium seemed to take a few seconds before letting the reality sink in – Bengaluru FC were trailing 3-1 in the 67th minute of the ISL final.

Bengaluru had one good chance and it was wasted by the man you would expect the least to miss an open goal. Miku had somehow worked his way inside down the goal line and attracted most of the Chennaiyin defence in the process. He then put the ball in across the face of goal and Chhetri had an empty net to turn it into. He ended up skying his shot. Miku himself scored in injury time but just a couple of minutes later, the referee blew the final whistle. Chennaiyin had won the first title at home. This time, they did it at the den of arguably their biggest rivals. “We showed a lot of b***s,” said John Gregory. No fairer assesment could have been made.