Blues come from behind to trounce Mariners in first continental meet

by Chittu Shetty March 15, 2017

Chhetri’s amazing free Kick and Jhingan’s second half goal ensured Bengaluru FC come away with 3 points from their 1st continental meet against Mohan Bagan

In a game best described in two halves with both sides producing contrasting performances on either side, Blues came from behind to take all three points. In the first game of AFC Cup South Asia zone group stage, Bengaluru FC hosted fellow Indian club Mohan Bagan. With I-league title hopes almost gone in smoke, Bengaluru had AFC Cup to begin with a fresh start and give fans something to cheer for, Blues produced a scintillating second half display after going down 0-1 at the break, courtesy Katsumi Yusa Penalty, to register first three points.

Both sides started out with two changes from the one that took field four days ago, Bengaluru brought in Salam Ranjan Singh in place of Nishu Kumar and CK Vineeth added additional attacking impetus in place of Eugeneson Lyngdoh. The Mariners at the other end, brought in Bikramjit Singh and Jeje Lalpekhlua for Souvik Chakrabarti and Darryl Duffy respectively.

A bright first few minutes ensued when blues chased every ball with Chhetri twice coming close to intercepting Mohan Bagan’s nervous back-pass defending. But soon Mariners came into their own with Captain Katsumi Yusa creating havocs in Blues half. In the tenth minute, Yusa’s beautiful cross was unable to convert by Jeje, whose tap in went wide. Ten minutes later another similar cross from Yusa found Balwant but the forwards header went off target.

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After a couple of few more half chances, in the 36^th minute, Norde was tripped by Jhingan inside the box as mariners were awarded a penalty. Katsumi Yusa stepped up and slotted the ball to the bottom left corner past a diving Arindam whose touch was not enough to keep the ball away. Mohan Bagan went in to break with a deserving lead as blues made too many defensive errors.

Seeing his teams dismal performances, to stir things up Coach Albert Roca brought in Eugeneson replacing Lenny. Blues soon began foraying into Mariners box and Six minutes into the second half earned a corner, Watson’s delivery found an unmarked onrushing Jhingan who slotted the ball past the Mohun Bagan defence to level up the scores.

Few minutes later the game swung towards Bengaluru when Sunil Chhetri’s low free-kick found the bottom right corner from the edge of the penalty area after Shilton Paul erred  by carrying the ball past the box under pressure from Vineeth.

The second goal turned the momentum completely under Blues favour as Bengaluru repeatedly created chances breaking the mariners defence. Mohun Bagan looked completely out of ideas after their injured captain Katsumi Yusa was subbed off, with Norde having a bad day too. Udanta and Vineeth had a couple of chances to finish off the game but were denied by Paul.

In the final minute of injury time Juan almost doubled the lead when his free kick from 30 yards just flew past the post. In the end, Blues opened their points table with a victory in their Group E opener to start their continental campaign on a positive note.

Bengaluru FC 2 (Jhingan 51’, Chhetri 57’) – 1 Mohan Bagan (Yusa 36’)