Chennaiyin FC defeated Jamshedpur FC by 2-1 in a highly thrilling contest. This match had seen an Indian guy coming up on top between all those talented foreigners in both teams.
Anirudh Thapa, the 22-year-old central midfielder from Uttarakhand, became the first Indian to score in ISL this season. He scored in the very first minute of the game on Tuesday.
Chennaiyin FC midfielder Rafael Crivellaro passed the ball to Esmael Goncalves after dispossessing Jitendra Singh. Esmael then found out an unmarked Anirudh Thapa with a lovely cut back into the box. Anirudh Thapa made no mistake to squish that into the net.
Before that, all the goals in this season were scored by foreign players. Roy Krishna [ATK Mohun Bagan FC], Kwesi Appiah [North-East United FC], Igor Angulo [FC Goa], Cleiton Silva & Juanan [Bengaluru FC], and Aridane Santana [Hyderabad FC] were the scorers this season before Anirudh Thapa.
Anirudh Thapa joined Chennaiyin FC in 2016. He is one of the most important members of the two times ISL champion. He was also a member of the 2017-18 ISL Champion side of Chennaiyin FC.
In his 69 appearances for the club, he has scored 6 goals. He is also a regular member of the Indian Team. He is an excellent versatile box-to-box midfielder.
It took five matches for an Indian to score a goal in this ISL. As every club is relying more on foreigners it will be a question of how many goals Indians score this season.
