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ISL 2015: Atletico de Kolkata beat Chennaiyin FC to jump to second place

ATK's Iain Hume scored his fifth goal in the tournament.

ISL 2015: Atletico de Kolkata beat Chennaiyin FC to jump to second place

Kolkata: Defending champions Atletico de Kolkata came from a goal down to beat Chennaiyin FC 2-1 and jump to the second spot in the Indian Super League football tournament, here.

Raphael Augusto put the visitors ahead in the 27th minute before Atletico produced the turnaround with a superb display by man-of-the-match Sameehg Doutie.

The South African right winger brought in the equaliser before the interval and produced a fine assist in the 63rd minute for Iain Hume to score his fifth goal in the tournament.

Atletico jumped to the second place behind leaders FC Goa with 17 points from 11 matches, while Chennayin were rooted to the bottom of the table with 10 points from as many matches.

This was also the Kolkata outfit's first win at home in three matches as they returned to winning ways after two successive defeats at the Vivekananda Yuva Bharati Krirangan.

Raphael Augusto put Chennayin ahead in the 27th minute when the Brazilian took advantage of some sloppy defending by Augustin Fernandes to make a clincial finish.

Augusto played a little one-two with Fikru and made his way into the box after the Atletico left back made a failed diving attempt to clear the ball.

Arnab Mondal too came in his way but once Augusto went past Fernandes there was no stopping him as the Brazilian calmly slotted the ball home.

Having conceded the first goal in front of the home crowd, Atletico lifted their game in what was a lacklustre start for both the teams. 

Atletico had their first clear chance in the 35th minute through Doutie but it was brilliantly cleared by Dhanachandra Singh who came back from behind and knocked the ball away before the home team medio could take the possession.

Six minute later, the visitors almost doubled the lead but for the former Atletico forward Fikru Teferra who failed to finish from a one to one position.

Just a minute into the added time of the opening half, Dhanachandra conceded a freekick at the edge of the box and Jaime Gavilan's well directed shot was fisted away by Chennayin goalkeeper Karanjit Singh.

The danger however was not averted as Doutie lurking outside the box blasted a neatly directed volley that was unstoppable and went past a crowd of players to find the back of the net.

After the changeover, Doutie seeing Hume run into the box superbly threaded the ball from the right flank and the Candian tapped the ball past a hapless Karanjit.

Earlier, Habas chose to bid some more time on his marquee player Helder Postiga as the Portuguese World Cupper who had returned from a one and half month's injury layoff was rested.

But their latest recruit Dejan Lekic started from the bench while there was some good news for Arata Izumi as he got a start.

Marco Materazzi, on the other hand, made a flurry of changes including that of Fikru to play against his former team, while Stiven Mendoza warmed the bench.