Chennaiyin Football Club defeated Goa two goals to nil, handing them their third successive defeat in the Indian Super League (ISL) at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on Thursday.
Chennaiyin had won last year's final in a dramatic fashion after scoring two late goals in Goa and when they met again on Thursday, the defending champions needed no such late drama. They scored twice in the first half for a 2-0 victory at home.
The victory helped the hosts accumulate four points from three matches, while FC Goa are placed at the bottom of the pool without any point from three matches. FC Goa is the only team without a point in the league.
In the opening few minutes, Chennaiyin FC were tentative and made mistakes in defence. Goa could have netted one when goalkeeper Karanjit Singh tried to control Fulganco Cardozo's long ball forward in the second minute, giving it away to Reinaldo Oliveira.
The Brazilian, however, could not stay on his feet and did not get anything for his fall inside the danger zone.
Once the nerves were settled, Chennaiyin FC went ahead immediately. The breakthrough came in the 15th minute as Mulder collected a ball from Raphael Augusto just outside the box, kept his calm and curled the ball past a diving Goa goalkeeper Laxmikant Kattimani before the defenders could even react.
The home side made it 2-0 in the 26th minute, this time in fortunate circumstances. Chennaiyin captain Mehrajuddin Wadoo was looking to cross the ball inside the goalmouth but instead managed to get a wicked deflection off Goa defender Richard Dumas which beat Kattimani again.
FC Goa had chances to fight their way back into the game, but lacked sharpness.
In the second session, FC Goa chief coach Zico tried to change the equation with a flurry of changes in the attack, but Chennaiyin FC defended in numbers.
The hosts should have won by a much bigger margin had the strikers kept their cool. Davide Succi had a golden chance to make it 3-0 when Mulder's long overhead ball saw him within touching distance of the goal, only for Kattimani to get in a touch.
Then Mulder found Baljit Sahni with another well-measured cross but the Indian striker could only hit the side-netting as the game ended 2-0 in favour of the hosts.
