Kolkata: Odei Onaindia Zabala scores an own goal at the half-hour mark to push Bengaluru FC (BFC) into the final of 131st Durand Cup. Having most of the chances as well as possession and Hyderabad FC (HFC) striker Batholomew Ogbeche was wasteful for once, but in the end The Blues did well enough to win the battle of ISL Champions.
The match began with no team willing to give an inch and as a result there were quite a few rough challenges witnessed. BFC’s Parag Shrivas received a yellow card early. The goal came against the run of play in BFC’s first proper attack of the match. Jayesh Rane played right to Prabir Das, who delivered the perfect cross across the face of goal for Roy Krishna. Krishna got a touch but Zabala, deflected it into the back of his own net in the end. HFC exerted good pressure after the goal with Ogbeche getting a cross from Yasir but missed the target.
In the second half, there were two more great chances for Ogbeche to score. The first in the 49th minute, where he took a powerful header off a measured cross delivered by Nikhil Poojary, but Gurpreet Sandhu, was up to the task. Then in the 77th, a move involving Halicharan and Borja Herrerra found him in space for a shot at goal, but he was just off-target yet again. There weren’t too many clear chances in the game after that.
Bengaluru FC– 1 (Odei Zabala (og))
Hyderabad FC- 0 ()
