Chennaiyin FC fought until the end to squander the lead and settle for a pale draw against NorthEast United FC, in the 2020-21 Indian Super League, at the GMC Stadium in Goa on Thursday. With this draw, Chennaiyin stays at eighth, while NEU remains on fifth.The first half saw Chennaiyin come up with the opening attack in the fourth minute. In contrast, three minutes later, Lallianzuala Chhangte handed the side the opening lead with his left foot to the centre from the left flank, following an assist from Jakub Sylvestr.
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While Chennaiyin followed it up with another attack in the ninth minute, NEU drew level just four minutes later, as Imran Khan shot a close-range header to the bottom-left. There were nine more attempts made until the 42nd minute, including twin saves from each of the goalkeepers.
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Nonetheless, in the 42nd minute itself, Deshorn Brown doubled it for NEU, with his right foot to the bottom left from the right flank, thanks to Khassa Camara's through ball assist. Although Chennaiyin followed it up with another attack a couple of minutes later, NEU maintained the lead at the half-time break.
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The second half saw the opening attack from NEU being denied by Chennaiyin goalkeeper Vishal Kaith in the 47th minute. However, a couple of minutes later, Ashutosh Mehta fouled Chhangte inside the box. Manuel Lanzarote swiftly converted it with his left foot to the bottom right to hand Chennaiyin the second.Two minutes later, in the 49th minute, Chhangte restored the lead for Chennaiyin with its third goal, as his left-footed strike to the bottom-left from outside the box, following Edwin Vanspaul's assist, gave the side a breather. Until the 89th minute, 12 more attempts were made by either, including three saves, while a couple of them came from Kaith again.
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Nonetheless, three minutes later, Kaith himself fouled Idrissa Sylla inside the box, as the next minute saw Luís Machado successfully convert the spot-kick with his right foot to the bottom left. Although Chennaiyin made one last attempt in the 95th minute, it was to no avail as both sides split the two points amongst each other upon the referee's full-time whistle.
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