Chennai City FC did the bulk of the attacking but it was Gokulam FC that walked away with a 1-0 win, much to the disappointment of the home crowd in their Hero I-league clash at the Nehru Stadium here on Saturday.
The CCFC boys played as if it was now or never from the opening whistle. They enjoyed the ball possession for most part and, at times, even managed to get into the rival citadel with ease.
But the real threat for the Kerala side came in the 15th minute when Jean Joachim nicely connected a pass to the ever-reliable Murilo Almeida, who fired a shot at the goal only to find custodian Bilal Khan thwart his attempt.
CCFC had its moment of anxiety the very next minute. K. Salman was in a good position to head a Santu Singh cross home. He tried hard but CCFC ’keeper V. Baskaran came up with a similar rescue act.
CCFC intensified its efforts as Edwin Vanspaul and Murilo breached the defence on a couple of occasions but failed to drive home the advantage.
Gokulam seemed to concentrate more on its defence instead of marching forward and that troubled the team much. But in the second-half it showed some sense of urgency and it paid off. Kivi Zhimomi was the man of the moment for the team.
He got the big opportunity in the 60th minute and he grabbed it with both hands to pack a perfect header home.
Down by a goal, CCFC applied the pressure but the Gokulam boys held their nerve to collect three points.
The result:
Gokulam FC 1 (Kivi Zhimomi 60) bt Chennai City FC 0.