Garhwal FC vs FC Bengaluru United, 11th October 2020:
The I-League 2nd Division Qualifiers are already getting interesting after 3 games played, in Kolkata as we moved to the 4th game of the league today.
Bengaluru United took on Garhwal FC in Game number 2 of Match Day 2, which after plenty of action from both sides, ended in a 1:0 victory in favour of Bengaluru United as they pick up their first points on board while Garhwal suffers their 2nd loss in a row.
Before getting in let’s have a look at the lineups of both the teams.
Garhwal FC: Sayak Barai(GK), Pratik Lama, Neeraj Bhandari, Mahip Adhikari, Muhammed Shafeer PM, Bala Al Hassan(C), Gaurav Rawat, Rahul Baishnab Das, Ronald Singh Shaikhom, Gagandeep Singh, Victor Philip.
Substitutes: Afdal Varikkodan, Nirmal Singh Bisht, Nitin Bhandari, Suman Sarkar, Uttam Rai, Amey Vhatk, Abhishek Calvin(GK), Vinodkunar Chandrakishor Pandey, Gursimrat Singh, Nikhil Vijay Pal.
Bengaluru United: Kunzang Bhutia(GK), Asraf Ali Mondal, Ronaldo Oliveira, Robert Primus, Arun Kumar D, Naro Hari Shrestha, Rana Gharami, Vignesh Gunasheka(C), Azharuddin Mallick, William Opoku Asiedu, Amey Ranawade.
Substitutes: Daniel, Brandon Green, Mohammad Asar Rehber, Ishan Dey, Srijith R(GK), Kiran Sravanan, Amjil P, Hardik Bhatt, Aditya Mohan, Shreyas Ketkar.
We all often say that morning shows the Day, and that’s what probably happened in today’s match as FC Bengaluru United were dominating proceedings from the first minute of the game, before finally, the breakthrough came for them in only the 8th minute of the match. A rebound from The Garhwal Goalkeeper Sayak after a shot from Ronaldo Oliveira, and the ball was thumped back into the net by William Opoku, the man all Bengaluru United fans would probably be keeping their hopes on for the same.
The match flowed smoothly in their favour as they kept dominating with attacks raining on the Garhwal defence from left and right, and center via Azharuddin Mallick, Ronaldo Oliveira, Naro Hari Sreshtha and William Opoku. Bengaluru were having majority of the possession, but things weren’t to be the same forever though as Mahip Adhikari along with Ronald Saikhom, Bali, and Uttam Rai were taking charge of the Garhwal attacks but only to be cut off by a wonderful defending performance from Amey Ranawade, Rana Gharami and the other players before even the attack reaching the man in Bengaluru United’s goal, Kunzang Bhutia.
Mahip Adhikari kept catching eyes with his runs down the right hand side of the field, but the closest Garhwal ever came in the first half was Uttam Rai dribbling inside the box in the 42nd minute to find Victor whose left footed attempt hit the cross-bar. They also got a free-kick at the 45th minute mark, but the shot from Bali Al Hassan was saved by a diving effort from Kunzang Bhutia, which on the rebound could have been a tap in from Neeraj Bhandari who was in the right place at the right time, but just couldn’t find the back of the net and the opportunity went begging.
The first half ended with a scoreline 1:0 in favour of FC Bengaluru United, but the stats were very evenly poised by then because of the efforts from the team from Delhi, especially in the last quarter of the first half. Both teams had 7 shots each at the end of the first half and the game was surely not yet over for Garhwal.
The second half started with similar attacking domination from Bengaluru United, with 1crosses in the box, 2 from Naro Hari Sreshtha, 1 from Amey Ranawade, and a long range attempt from Ronaldo Oliveira, all within just 2 minutes of the 2nd half.
Garhwal though didn’t give up and kept on attacking but most of their attack being based on long balls were comfortably dealt with by the Bengaluru United defence. The game continued with end to end action with both teams making a couple of substitutions to make things work but nothing helped Garhwal tonight.
Mahip Adhikari though continued to perform throughout the game and made a few chances for Garhwal one of which ended with a header from Uttam Rai but wasn’t enough to beat the experienced keeper Kunzang.
The team from Delhi kept trying as their hopes were going down with time, and they came close once again with a 82nd minute free-kick which was wonderfully struck but was just off target.
Probably not Garhwal’s day as the rain started pouring down with 4 minutes added on to the ninety, almost in resemblance of the falling hopes for Garhwal.
The match ended with the same scoreline as FC Bengaluru United beat Garhwal FC by a 1:0 margin to pick up their first 3points on board.
We saw yet another wonderful game of football with some notable performances from Azharuddin Mallik, Ronaldo Oliveira, Mahip Adhikari, and Bali Al Hassan. Less praised the man in Garhwal’s goal, because of the scoreline, Sayak Barai, who also had a busy day in Goal and had a few saves to make including a goal bound shot from William Opoku in the 22nd minute of the game.
Hoping for more exciting matches to come in the upcoming matchdays of the Hero ILeague Qualifiers 2020.
The next match will be played between Garhwal FC and Bhowanipore FC at 12:30 PM on Wednesday, 14th October 2020.
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