Chennaiyin FC produced a clinical performance and pumped in goals in the second half to thrash Mumbai City FC 3-0 to consolidate their position at the top of the table in Indian Super League at the DY Patil Stadium in Mumbai on Sunday.
After much prodding and probing, Bruno Pelissari gave his side the lead in the 71st minute when he slotted the ball home. Pelissari made the stride after a blunder from Mumbai midfielder Jan Stohanzl, who gave away the ball from the edge of the box before Chennai's Balwant Singh failed to get a touch.
The Marco Materazzi-coached side extended the lead 10 minutes later when Dhanachandra Singh's shot found the back of the net after capitalising on a error from Mumbai custodian Subrata Paul.
The Abhishek Bachchan and Mahendra Singh Dhoni co-owned side took an unsailable 3-0 lead in the 89th minute when Cristian Hidalgo, who came in for Pelissari in the 73rd minute, smashed a brilliant freekick past to the right of a flying Paul in the Mumbai goal.
The table-toppers missed out on getting a penalty when Mikael Silvestre's shot hit Manuel Friedrich's hand in the 56th minute. Chennai which had drubbed Mumbai 5-1 when the two sides had met earlier, consolidate their position at the top with 19 points from 10 games, while with 12 points Mumbai is placed sixth in the eight-team league.
The hosts were without the services of the French import Nicolas Anelka and drafted Portuguese midfielder Tiago Ribeiro in his place, while skipper Syed Rahim Nabi came in place of forward Subash Singham in the starting eleven.
Chennaiyin, on the other hand, made three changes to their line-up from the previous game. The league's highest goal scorer Elano Blumer, Colombian striker John Mendoza and Gourmangi Singh were replaced by Bruno Pelissari, Mikael Silvestre and Balwant Singh.
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