Bengaluru FC beat Hyderabad FC 3-0 in the 7th match of the 2024-25 season of the Indian Super League at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru on Thursday, September 19.
Home captain Rahul Bheke got on the scoresheet for them in the fifth minute when a pin-point corner from Vinith Venkatesh found him on the far post shrugging off the embrace of Hyderabad centre-back Mohammad Rafi.
Substitute and legend Sunil Chhetri doubled the lead for Bengaluru in the 85th minute after visiting right-back Leander D’Cunha brought his opposite number Roshan Singh down in the box through a lazy challenge.
D’Cunha left empty spaces yet again when Chhetri lunged forward to head a seductive cross from Edgar Mendez in stoppage time to seal the deal for the hosts and pick up all three points on offer.
The cohesion between the Hyderabad front line of Ramhlunchhunga, Devendra Murgaonkar, Abdul Rabeeh and Abhijith PA were perhaps the biggest positives for them, along with the experienced Lenny Rodrigues’ calm head in midfield.
The Nawabs’ defence seemed watertight apart from the early lack of cohesion that led them to concede the goal, with newly appointed skipper Alex Saji leading the line with confidence and grit.
Newly signed fullbacks Parag Shrivas and D’Cunha passed the ball along nicely between each other and brought wingers Rabeeh and Chhunga into play regularly. Their positioning without the ball was a treat to watch apart from D’Cunha’s late errors that arose probably due to lack of training time.
Youngster Vinith Venkatesh was yet again the stand-out performer for Bengaluru FC
For Bengaluru, youngster Vinith Venkatesh was yet again the stand-out performer until he was replaced by Sunil Chhetri, who was well into his professional career when the former was born in 2005. Venkatesh was the reason the supporters thronging the West Block cheered their lungs out.
Apart from his assist, Venkatesh’s composed nature on the ball as well as his work rate off it impressed everyone in attendance as did the way in which he handled being pressurized by Hyderabad’s defenders.
Right-back Nikhil Poojary, who moved south in the 2024 January transfer window from Hyderabad, earned his 100th ISL cap in this game.
The 29-year-old displayed his wealth of experience by routinely cutting off the service of the Hyderabad wingers. One challenge, in particular, against Abhijith stood out when Poojary showed his astuteness to narrow the angle down and stop the latter’s solo run in its tracks.
Poojary’s overlapping runs on the flanks also elicited warm responses from the crowd. Added to that, his willingness – and accuracy – while tracking back was one of the biggest reasons why the Blues were able to keep a clean sheet.
Head coach Zaragoza will be disappointed that his team did not add to their lead, especially playing against an all-Indian side (which changed only in the second half when Cy Goddard came on Abhijith PA) that had little preparation behind them.
The Nawabs, for their part, will be disheartened by the fact that they did not test the hosts’ goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu enough, especially low down to his left, when he was clearly the weakest link in the Blues’ defence.
Hyderabad FC head coach Thangboi Singto will be quite pleased that his wards had the pluck to stand up to a hardened Bengaluru defence that showed signs of cracking under pressure but yielded towards the end purely because of the experience it was the proud owner of.
This was the Blues’ fourth win over the Nawabs in eleven encounters between the two clubs, with the latter too having won four games and drawn the rest.
Bengaluru next host Mohun Bagan on Saturday, September 28 while the Yellow and Black travel onwards to New Delhi to face-off against a rejuvenated Punjab FC under new head coach Panagiotis Dilmperis on Wednesday, September 25.
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