Bengaluru FC maintained its unbeaten streak with a 2-1 victory over Kerala Blasters at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Kochi on Monday.
Skipper Sunil Chhetri opened the scoring for the visitors in the 17th minute before Slavisa Stojanovic equalised from the spot 13 minutes later. But Kerala’s unscathed season came to a halt just nine minutes before the final whistle when Nikola Krcmarevic directed Xisco Hernandez’s shot off a goalkeeper save into the goal.
On the back of four consecutive draws after a 0-2 win over ATK in their opening encounter, Kerala began well and could have scored early in the third minute when Prasanth found him unmarked inside the box. But with ample space on both sides of the net, the former Bengaluru man fired over the bar.
Minutes later Erik Paartalu found himself in a similar position after Dimas Delgado’s header was put into his path by Kerala skipper Sandesh Jhingan. But his effort although on target was cleared by left-back Lalruatthara.
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He though wouldn’t repent as much as Vineeth would because in the 17th minute Chhetri put Bengaluru ahead from a well-coordinated move. Albert Serran initiated the move and it was from his long ball that Miku found Chhetri through on goal with Jhingan chasing. The 34-year-old despite appearing to be slightly in an off-side position initially didn’t mince slotting the ball into goal.
But with Prasanth Karuthadathkuni constantly threatening on the left flank, the match looked far from over. The home side had two good opportunities to score as the game progressed, but Seminlen Doungel found the side-netting from close range, while Prasanth’s long-ranger was somehow kept out by Bengaluru custodian Gurpreet Singh Sandhu.
Doungel then found himself with another good opportunity right at the brink of half-time but his effort on target was kept out by the Bengaluru custodian.
Both sides went into the break levelled on 1-1 and it looked Bengaluru had put second gear as play resumed. Udanta Singh came close to scoring after Miku found him. But his deflected shot was parried away by Naveen Kumar on goal.
He would eventually repent the glaring opportunities he missed on the evening as Krcmarevic scored into his net to hand over the victory to the visitors. Xisco did well to find Miku with a through ball, which the Venezuelan squared back to him. But his shot from close range was saved by Kumar only for the Serbian to deflect the ball into his own net.
With a hat-trick of wins from three consecutive away games, Bengaluru remained on top on 13 points from five matches, while Kerala are on sixth with seven points from a match more.
Image Source: ISL