Delhi Dynamos beat Swedish Club Skene IF 2-1 in pre-ISL friendly

Skene (Sweden): Delhi Dynamos Football Club registered their first win by coming from behind as they secured a 2-1 victory over Swedish Club Skene IF at the Vavarevallan, here on Sunday night. Delhi Dynamos F.C., North India’s only ISL club, playing their second friendly match in Sweden as part of their pre-season training were trailing for the majority of the match. But the away side, who have showed immense character in their last match against BK Hacken, produced yet another resilient performance, thanks to two second half goals from midfielders Kean Lewis and Marcelo Leite to register their maiden win of the pre-season, much to the liking of their head coach Gianluca Zambrotta, who could finally see his philosophy bring success to the New Delhi based club. The match also saw the return of their Ghanaian superstar Richard Gadze and debut of Senegalese Baye Ibrahima Niasse. The Lions started off on a positive note and took the attack straight to the Swedish side. Samir Nabi came close to scoring in the seventh minute of the match with a vicious strike, which was blocked by an onrushing defender. They were at it again, when Kean Lewis came forth to scoring in the 13 minute with a brilliant solo effort. Kean, who has been one of the most impressive players for the Lions squad during the pre-season, picked up the ball in midfield and dribbled past couple of defenders to fire in a powerful shot, but it was acrobatically saved by the goalkeeper to avert an initial setback for the hosts. With initial shy at the goal, the Lions became buoyant and created mayhem in the middle controlling the proceedings of the match. In the 18^th minute of the match they were once again denied by an excellent save by Skene custodian, when Arjun Tudu had a shot on target. However, in the 35^th minute of the match, Skene broke the deadlock much against the run of play with a superb strike from their striker Oscar. As had been the story for Zambrotta’s squad during the entire pre-season, they fell behind once again and went into the break chasing the game. The away side started off strongly after the change of ends and kept on pressing hard for the equalizer and but as luck would it have it, their multiple attempt at finding the back of the net failed. Their hard work eventually paid off, and they finally scored the equalizer through their talisman Kean. The midfielder who has looked the best player on the pitch for Lions pounced on an easy pass from Amoes Do, and hit a stinging shot to bury the ball at the back of the nets to restore parity in the 70^th minute. With time running out both the teams were looking for the winning goal, but it was the visitors whose perseverance saw them go ahead in the match for the first time with their new foreign signing Marcelo Leite, curling in a wonderful free kick to beat the opposition goalkeeper all ends up and took the lead in the 80^th minute. With barely 10 minutes left for the final whistle, Delhi Dynamos F.C. sat back and their defenders put up an adamant show to protect their lead and record their first win during their ongoing pre-season.