I-League | Chennai City FC win maiden title while East Bengal finish second

SportsCafe Desk

BySportsCafe Desk, SportsCafe Editor

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Chennai City FC were crowned champions in the 12th edition of the I-League after they defeated defending champions Minerva Punjab by a score of 3-1. Although East Bengal also won their game against Gokulam Kerala 2-1, they finished just below the Chennai club on the points table. 

As the I-League 2018-19 season went all down to the last couple of matches to get the new winner of the tournament, it was Chennai City FC that edged past Kolkata-based East Bengal to finish at the top of the points table with a total of 43 points from 20 games after their 3-1 victory against the defending champions at their home venue. 

Minerva had a great start to their last game as Roland Bilala headed the ball into the net after receiving the ball from a Juan Querro’s free-kick to give the Punjab club a lead in the third minute of the match. Bilala had another opportunity to score a goal to double the lead in the 40th minute but he failed to head in a cross from Juan. The scoreline remained 1-0 in favour of the visitors at half-time in Coimbatore. 

In the second half, however, Chennai started on an attacking note and it was Pedro Manzi who found the equaliser 11 minutes after the break as he converted the penalty. With Chennai back in the race to win the title, Gaurav Bora rose to the occasion for the South Indian club to make a name in the most crucial battle of the season. In the 69th minute of the game, Sandro delivered the ball to Bora at the far-post and the latter made no mistake in making it 2-1. In injury time when Chennai were looking clear favourites, Bora nailed another goal off a corner to ensure a big win to end the season with their maiden title in I-League.

In the other match, East Bengal, who wanted Chennai to win or draw the game against Minerva, managed to get a 2-1 win against Gokulam Kerala in Kozhikode. After a goalless first-half, it was the Kerala team that got the lead in the 69th minute when Marcus nailed the opening goal. However, Jaime Santos Colado scored the equaliser for the Kolkata-based club in the 78th minute and seven minutes later, Laldanmawia Ralte doubled it in favour of the Kolkata-based team.  Despite a hard-fought win, East Bengal had to remain satisfied being the second best club in the 12th I-League season. 

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