Local League: Eagles dents CCFC’s title hopes

In the second match, Chennai Customs produced an impressive performance to prevail 3-1 over Arrows FC. But the day well and truly belonged to Hindustan Eagles as two players scored a brace each, and its defence was equally impressive as it snuffed out Chennai City’s challenge. 

Chennai City, which suffered a setback in the earlier rounds when it lost to promoted team RBI, desperately needed three points to get itself back in the title race. Its plans went awry in what was a forgettable first-half as Eagles scored three goals inside 25 minutes to seize the initiative. 

Two of those three goals came from the foot of the Nigerian Okoro who scored both his goals in the span of three minutes. After conceding those three goals there was no way back for City and things got worse in the second-half when Cletus scored a brace of his own to add to City’s woes. It will take some doing for City to overcome this morale shattering loss.

Meanwhile, Customs took a giant stride towards avoiding the dreadful drop as it defeated Arrows 3-1. Customs’ Prashant opened the scoring in the 11th minute to cancel out the seventh minute penalty scored by Emmanuvel Chijiku. 

Customs put in an aggressive show in the second-half as Vijay and Sasikumar added two goals to their team’s tally. 

Results: Hindustan Eagles 5 (Okoro 17, 20; Shine 24, Cletus 78, 85) bt Chennai City FC 0; Chennai Customs RC 3 (Prashant 11, Vijay 57, Sasikumar 85) bt Arrows FC 1 (Emmanuvel Chijiku 7-pen)