Goa: Bengaluru FC held their nerves as they beat a struggling Odisha FC side 2-1 at the GMC Stadium, Bambolim, Goa. Sunil Chhetri and Cleiton Silva scored for the Blues and while for Odisha it was Steven Taylor. This win helped Bengaluru to climb up to the second spot in the table with 12 points after six matches and Odisha it’s still the same.
It was the 499th match of the Indian Super League and was important for both the teams to fire for their respective reasons. Bengaluru wanted to stay on the hunt of being at the top whereas Odisha wanted to kick start their season.
The match started with a promise for Stuart Baxter’s Odisha side as they were playing positive football from the first minute. A Manuel Onwu goal was disallowed by the linesman due to offside, which was a questionable decision.
But you can’t stop a strong side like Bengaluru just like that. Captain fantastic Chettri stepped up to the occasion and broke the deadlock in the 38th minute through a header.
In the second half, Odisha started to press harder. They created many positive chances but were failing to convert. In step their Captain Taylor and scored the equaliser in the 71st minute of the match.
Carles Cudrat made two important changes after that, brought in Deshorn Brown in place of Eric Paartalu and Amay Morajkar in place of Suresh Singh. And they were instant impact. In the 79th minute, Silva scored the winner for his side from a Brown pass and it sealed the deal for Bengaluru.
Cuadrat looked happy as he was smiling after every goal shows that things are on a right track for him before they face ATK Mohun Bagan on Monday. His players have started to step up in a difficult situation and the results show that.
Baxter looked disturbed by his team’s performance. Only one point out of six matches shows the team is still missing the cutting edge. Marcelino looked totally out of shape and struggled to influence the game. Maybe the time has come for Odisha to make some quick but big decisions to kick start their campaign.
