Bengaluru FC enter Durand Cup knockouts with 2-2 draw against FC Goa

Bengaluru FC Media

Sunil Chhetri and Sivasakthi Narayanan were on target for Bengaluru FC in a 2-2 draw against FC Goa, in a Group A encounter of the 2022 Durand Cup at the Vivekananda Yuva Bharati Krirangan, in Kolkata, on Tuesday. The Blues, who took a two-goal lead into the break, came up against a resilient Goa side in the second period, who drew level through strikes from Phrangki Buam and Lesly Rebello.

Earlier, Blues’ Head Coach Simon Grayson handed starts to goalkeeper Amrit Gope and Prince Ibara as summer signing Javi Hernandez joined Jayesh Rane on the bench. Bengaluru had won their opening two matches of the tournament against Jamshedpur FC (2-1) and Indian Air Force FT (4-0), and needed just a point to attain an unassailable lead in the group.

 

Bengaluru started strong and controlled proceedings for much of the opening minutes before Ibara pulled up with an injury, forcing Grayson into making an early change, replacing the Congolese international with Narayanan.

The Blues opened the scoring through skipper Chhetri, who dispatched an inch-perfect free-kick past Goa custodian Hrithik Tiwari in the 24th minute to make it 1-0. Only moments later, Sivasakthi doubled the Bengaluru lead, tapping home a knock-down from Udanta Singh after Bruno Ramires had found the winger in the box with a ball over the Goa defense.

 

Bengaluru took the 2-0 lead into the break and came out with one more change in personnel as Jayesh Rane marked his return from injury, replacing Ramires. Grayson’s side had several chances to add to their lead within minutes of the restart, but efforts from Parag Shrivas, Danish Farooq and Sivasakthi were dealt with by the visitors.

 

Against the run of play, Goa pulled one back when Rohit Kumar’s stray pass found winger Phrangki, who rounded Gope and slotted home to make it 2-1. Rohit almost made amends at the other end, when he ran onto Sivasakthi’s pass and got a shot away but Tiwari pushed it onto the woodwork with a fantastic save.

 

Goa scored the equalizer just past the hour mark when Amrit failed to deal with a cross from the right, allowing Lesly Rebello to slot home from close range to make it 2-2. Bengaluru made further changes, with Hernandez, Faisal Ali and Leon Augustine making their way onto the pitch.

 

Bengaluru pushed forward in search of a winner, but it wasn’t to be as the visitors held fort to see out the rest of the encounter. The Blues next face Group A leaders Mohammedan SC at the same venue, on August 2nd.

Bengaluru cruise 4-0 winners past Indian Air Force in Durand Cup

Bengaluru FC Media 

Simon Grayson’s Bengaluru FC side ran away 4-0 winners against Indian Air Force FT at the Kishore Bharati Krirangan, in Kolkata, on Tuesday, climbing to joint-top of Group A in the 2022 Durand Cup in the process, level on points with Mohammedan SC. Goals from Roy Krishna and Sunil Chhetri gave the Blues a 2-0 lead heading into the break before substitutes Faisal Ali and Sivasakthi Narayanan added two more in the second period.

 

Grayson made six changes to the side that took on Jamshedpur FC in the opening encounter, handing starts to Sandesh Jhingan, Aleksandar Jovanovic and Krishna. Chhetri and Krishna started in attack for the Blues, who set up in a 3-5-2 formation.

 

Bengaluru started strong, making inroads from the get go and took only nine minutes to break the deadlock. A long diagonal from Jovanovic fell to Krishna, who brushed off his marker and finished past Shibin Raj in the IAF goal. Fifteen minutes later, Chhetri doubled the lead, converting a seemingly harmless cross into the area from the tightest of angles off an IAF defender.

 

IAF’s best chance of the half fell to Mohammed Aqib, but his shot from distance was parried away by Gurpreet. Into the second period, Bengaluru rang in a change as Jhingan was replaced by Udanta Singh. Prabir Das fell into the three-man backline as Udanta took his place.

 

Bengaluru continued to push forward, and made three more changes in quick succession past the hour mark as Faisal, Alan and Parag made their way on to replace Jovanovic, Muirang and Krishna. Only three minutes on from his introduction, Faisal wrote his name into the scoresheet, slotting in from close range after Wangjam had done well to keep the ball in play for Udanta.

 

Into extra-time, Bengaluru had another substitute on the scoresheet with Sivasakthi, who had replaced Chhetri just moments earlier, running onto a pass from Wangjam and slotting past Shibin Raj.

 

Bengaluru face FC Goa next, at the VYBK, on August 30th.