Jamshedpur FC erased a first-half goal deficit to make a fine comeback and beat NorthEast United 2-1 in a Group B match of the Super Cup at the Kalinga Stadium on Wednesday.
Jamshedpur FC are now joint leaders in Group B with Kerala Blasters, who bagged three points on the strength of their win over Shillong Lajong FC in the day’s first match.
Neither NorthEast nor Jamshedpur are currently enjoying a great run midway through the Indian Super League. Both have won only two matches each after 12 rounds. On Wednesday, when the two teams met, the game never rose to any great height, though both made all the efforts to break the rival defence.
NorthEast, who defeated Jamshedpur by a solitary goal when the two met in ISL, took the lead in the 17th minute as they made the most of a defensive lapse. A faulty clearance by the Jamshedpur defence was grabbed by Nestor Albiach Roger and he took a shot at the goal that deflected off a defender to go in.
Jamshedpur made every effort to draw level and they were certainly unlucky on a couple of occasions for not getting the desired result.
Jamshedpur’s consistent efforts finally paid off in the 68th minute. Substitute striker Steve Ambri, whose presence on the pitch made lots of difference along with fellow Frenchman Jeremy Manzorro, did a brilliant job by providing the cross from the right. Nigerian striker Daniel Chima Chukwu anticipated the pass well and placed himself well to find the target.
Ambri was not finished though. He was relentless in his pursuit to break open the rival defence and provided some splitting passes for his colleagues, one to Chukwu, who virtually failed to push the ball into the open net.
Ambri finally took up the job of getting the match-winner for Jamshedpur in the 88th minute when he picked up the ball off a counter-attack and ran all the way to net the goal.