Former France and Chelsea star Florent Malouda inspired Delhi Dynamos to a 4-1 victory over defending champion Chennaiyin FC in an Indian Super League encounter at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here on Wednesday.
Malouda, leading the Delhi side, continued his impressive performance as he struck the home side’s second and fourth goals in the 25th and 85th minutes respectively. He also had a hand in other two as well, assisting in Richard Gadze and Kean Lewis’s goals.
CFC captain Bernard Mendy scored his side’s lone goal in the 37th- minute. With this win, Delhi has 16 points from nine matches, dislodging Mumbai City FC (15 points from nine matches) from the top. CFC is at sixth with 10 points from eight matches.
Playing its fifth home match, the Gianluca Zambrotta-coached Delhi side was clearly the better one with a lot more possession, distribution of the ball with neat passing while Chennaiyin played aimlessly for most part of the match.
In the second half, it played with more purpose and attacking intent after the introduction of India striker Jeje Lalpekhlua but failed to score.
It all started in the 15th-minute when Malouda won the ball from Chennaiyin’s Siam Hanghal and ran towards the CFC box. He struck nicely after creating space, but the ball found Chennaiyin goalkeeper Karanjit Singh, who parried it away. But Gadze was there to smash the ball on the rebound into the open net.
Ten minutes later, it was Malouda’s turn to make it 2-0, and this time Gadze was the supplier. Malouda sent a low and curling left-footer, which beat a diving Chennaiyin goalkeeper. With a 2-0 lead, it seemed Delhi would run away with the match. But, the visitors struck back in the 37th-minute with the hard-working Mendy pulling one back for his side. Delhi enhanced the lead in the 54th-minute with Malouda in the thick of things again. From a corner rebound, Malouda squared the ball at the edge of box for Kean Lewis whose right-footed low grounder curled around a diving goalkeeper before crashing into the net.
Five minutes before the final whistle, Malouda headed into the net by jumping over his marker to connect an in-form Marcelinho’s corner from the left.
