ISL: Odisha's home run broken as Chennaiyin script 3-2 comeback win in season opener at Kalinga

KOLKATA: Looking for a head start to their 2024-25 Indian Super League (ISL) campaign, Sergio Lobera's Odisha FC suffered a rude jolt when visitors Chennaiyin FC scored a stunning 3-2 comeback win at Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar on Saturday.
With the loss, Odisha's last season-long unbeaten run at home also came to an end. During the previous season, Odisha had literally made their home ground a fortress, accumulating 27 points in 11 home games with eight wins and three draws, the most by any team in a single season in the league's 10-season history.
The Kalinga Warriors had also scored 27 goals at home in the 2023-24 season, the joint most in a single campaign in the league's history, tied with FC Goa during the 2019-20 season, when Lobera was in charge of the Gaurs.
In their opening game of the 11th season, Odisha started on the desired note, looking potent in most of the moves. And their pressing game, with Hugo Boumos playing the key role, bore fruit when the French attacking midfielder earned a spot-kick as early as in the 8th minute. Brazilian striker Diego Mauricio obliged with a powerful shot at the bottom right corner.
Armed with the lead, Odisha continued to forge ahead but suffered two injury setbacks to their backline inside the first half-an-hour which had huge impact on the match's fate.
Right-back Saviour Gama left the field injured in the 16th minute before dependable centre-back Carlos Delgado went out of the park with an ankle injury in the 28th.
Odisha couldn't recover from the double blows in defence as Chennaiyin took full advantage to come back into the game towards the end of the first half itself.
Within six minutes of the change of sides, Owen Coyle's rejuvenated boys hammered double blows on the home side through Farukh Choudhary's brace before Daniel Chima Chukwu sealed the fate of the game scoring the third for CFC in the 69th minute.
Roy Krishna pulled one back for the Juggernauts in the dying minutes to make the scoreline 2-3 but that was too late to change the fate of the encounter.
Clearly missing Delgado's crucial services in the heart of the defence, Odisha backline virtually came to a standstill time and again as Delgado's Mourtada Fall looked a pale shadow of his former self.
In the 48th minute, CFC's two best players on the day, Connor Shields and Choudhary combined to earn the equaliser when Shields dribbled past a few defenders to cross it to Choudhary, who just tapped in to restore parity beating Odisha custodian Amrinder Singh.
Three minutes later, it was Amrinder's miskick while trying to build a move, which went straight to Choudhary inside the 18-yard-box. The former Jamshedpur FC winger's shot took a deflection off Ahmed Jahouh's leg before going into the net.
Odisha will travel to New Delhi for the Punjab FC match next Friday while Chennaiyin will take on newly-promoted Mohammedan SC at home on September 26.