Former Indian Super League (ISL) champion Hyderabad FC (HFC), playing its first home game this season, settled for a creditable goalless draw against two-time ISL winner Chennaiyin FC (CFC) in their league match at the GMC Balayogi Stadium here on Tuesday.
The host should be happy with the result despite messing with quite a few scoring chances in the first half for in the last 20 minutes as it also meant HFC picked its first point after losing the previous two games.
HFC was reduced to a 10-man field with defender Parag Shrivas getting the red card in the 71st minute for his second serious offence, on Connor Shields.
It was an impressive show by the HFC defence, manned by captain Alex Saji, Muhammed Rafi, and Shrivas, which was equal to the task of backing the goalkeeper Arshdeep Singh in the second half when CFC played a much superior game, creating more openings but failing to score.
Earlier, HFC could have easily taken the lead in the ninth minute of the first half when the speedy right winger Abdul Rabeeh essayed a splendid cross to the waiting Cy Goddard but the latter failed to beat the goalkeeper.
In one of the rare counter-attacks, CFC had a chance to score but the normally efficient Daniel Chima Chukwu failed to get his act right in front of the goal after a delectable cross from the left corner by Shields in the 29th minute.
Chima had a terrific run down the left flank and almost scored a goal for CFC but failed to control the ball when he was close to the target.
AS IT HAPPENED | MATCH HIGHLIGHTS
Soon, HFC, in another counter-attack, got its second clear chance to open the lead, thanks to another brilliant effort by Rabeeh on the right flank only to see his beautiful cross go begging – Allan de Souza failed to head the goal in, and then Ramhlunchhunga missed a tap-in in the 29th minute.
Just before the break, HFC missed another chance when the Rabeeh-Allan combine failed to produce the finishing touch in the 39th minute.
At half-time, the teams were locked goalless.
On resumption, CFC, which was the more dominant, was disappointed to see Lukas Brambilla essay a feeble right-footer off a lovely cross from the right by Farukh Choudhary in the 58th minute. And, the ball deflected off the goalkeeper Arshdeep’s hands and the goal-post to go out of play.
In one of those counter-attacks, HFC had another chance to take the lead again, but Allan’s right-footer from close range after picking a lovely long ball from the corner by Goddard went over the bar.
Soon, HFC was reduced to 10 players with Shrivas given marching orders for his second serious foul, this time on Connor Shields in the 71st minute.
The result: Hyderabad FC drew with Chennaiyin FC 0-0.
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