Chennai
Raynier Fernandes came in to replace Cameron Watson for the visitors while V Soundararajan made four changes.
Sebastian Thangmuansang, Clintu Cletus, Charles Lourdusamy and Alexander Jesuraj made way for Tarif Akhand, Asif Kottayil and new signings Kim Dong-Hyeon and Aleksandar Rakic. Azharuddin Mallick missed a sitter early on.
The youngster only had the ‘keeper to beat from twelve yards but shot over after Aser Pierrick Dipanda played him through in the fourth minute of the game itself. While Bagan started to mount the pressure, Aleksandar Rakic took it upon himself to impress in his new colours.
The Serbian won a free-kick on the edge of the Bagan area with Kingsley Obumneme tripping him. Shilton Paul did well to deny the former Maziya S&RC forward from the ensuing freekick as the custodian dived to his right to save the goal around the half-hour mark.
While Mallick failed to get going after his miss, latest recruit Bimal Gharti Magar was pushed on for his second appearance from the bench.
However, it was the host that had a chance before the half-time whistle. Cameron Watson’s suicidal backpass to Paul was intercepted by Jean-Michael Joachim who could only manage to hit the side-netting.
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