ISL: Gritty Bengaluru hand FC Goa first loss

Margao: Two brilliant finishes, one deserving win.

Bengaluru FC struck early to take the lead and then killed it at the end to hand FC Goa their first loss in the Indian Super League (ISL) at the Nehru Stadium in Fatorda on Saturday.

When Sunil Chhetri gave Bengaluru the lead in the third minute, Goa did not panic. Not surprising, given that in half of the games so far, Manolo Marquez’s side has fallen behind, only to bounce back, even late in the game, to snatch a point. This time around, there was no comeback, as Namgyal Bhutia scored the second in added time for a 2-0 win.





It was Renedy Singh’s last match in-charge of Bengaluru with the club appointing Pep Munoz as chief coach for the remainder of the season. The former India captain, though, didn’t seem unfazed and surprised many by opting for an all-Indian squad for the last 20 minutes.

The win takes Bengaluru to 14 points, the same as title-chasing Mumbai City, Jamshedpur FC and Mohun Bagan Super Giant. They’ve also picked up the most points from the last four matches, not a bad achievement for a side that has only two foreigners – Ryan Williams “he’s one of our own”, remember – and a coach who’s now on his way out.

Goa knew they were up against a strong opponent with six national team players and two quality foreigners. What the home team wasn’t prepared for was the early strike from Sunil Chhetri. The 41-year-old has clearly not lost his scoring touch, as evident from his finish, a grounder from top of the box after Ashique Kuruniyan’s pass was intercepted by Pol Moreno and fell kindly for India’s greatest scorer.

Goa took the setback in their stride and attacked. Sandesh Jhingan’s header from a Dejan Drazic corner-kick sailed just wide, Brison Fernandes forced goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu into an awkward push for a corner, and from the resultant attempt, Moreno struck the outside of the goalpost.

It was all happening inside the first 20 minutes. Midway into the game, Moreno tried to bundle home from inside the crowded box, only to see his attempt hit the goalpost.

An experienced team, Bengaluru knew how to absorb the pressure. The all-Indian defence hardly put a foot wrong; whenever Goa tried to cross inside the box, they rose to the occasion. On the counter, the likes of Williams, Ashique and Brain Sanchez quickly drove the ball forward and kept Goa on their toes.

In the second half, Suresh Singh went close for Bengaluru when his attempt from close struck the arm of Jhingan and went wide.

With two minutes left for normal time, Aakash Sangwan and Drazic combined on the left for a quick move. The Serbian winger did well to pick up Moreno inside the box, but his header wasn’t strong enough to trouble Sandhu.

Then, in the second minute of added on time, BFC’s young substitutes proved their coach right.

Monirul Molla flicked on a header to Fanai, who found Bhutia with a delightful through ball on the right. The striker took his time and finished it beautifully.

“We have lot of problems to score goals,” Manolo noted in his post-match interaction with the media. “We don’t have the capacity to be convinced to shoot, like Bhutia did (to score the second goal). The reality is that Bengaluru’s Indian players are much, much better than our team.”