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Bengaluru FC faced Gokulam Kerala FC in the round of 16 of the Hero Super Cup in the Hero Super Cup in Bhubaneswar. Gokulam qualified for the round of 16 by getting the better of Northeast United FC, while Bengaluru were playing their first game in the Super Cup.
Bengaluru made their intentions clear by stating that they are the favourites to win the competition, while Gokulam Kerala coach Bino George mentioned that they want to go as far as possible and keep playing a good brand of football.
The match started on a bright note for the giant Killers from Kerala who led Bangalore 1-0 from a Henry Kisseka strike.
The game turned on its head in the second half and BFC managed to win the game with the last touch of the game, to venture into the quarter-final of the Super Cup. Gokulam will go home with their heads held high after putting in such a performance.
On that note, let us take a look at the 5 talking points of today’s game
#5 Henry Kisseka troubles Juanan and Johnson
Right from the first minute Henry started troubling the likes of Johnson and Juanan and gave plenty of headaches to the Bengaluru defence. He split open the BFC defence with a perfect pass to VP Suhair but the Kerala born striker placed his shot wide of the mark.
Kisseka broke the deadlock when he beat the offside trap and ran onto a Musa pass to slot the ball past Gurpreet to give Gokulam the lead against Bengaluru.
Henry Kisseka also dropped deep to collect the ball sometimes and did release the likes of Musa and Suhair with some good through balls.
John Johnson and Juanan didn't have the best of games today, and they looked sloppy at patches and gaps seemed to appear in the BFC defence at regular intervals.
#4 Daniel Addo and Emanuel act as rocks in defence for Gokulam
Daniel Addo and Emanuel blocked everything that came their way. Emanuel made two brilliant last-ditch tackles to stop Chhetri from scoring, and Addo made more than a couple of aerial clearances.
Emanuel made a world-class goal-line clearance from a Miku chip which was destined to be a sure goal. Addo and Emanuel also looked to control the game and create chances from the back rather than just hoping aimless balls forward. Addo started limping when BFC scored the equalising goal and that was a huge factor which helped BFC score.
#3 Provat Lakhra vs Udanta Singh
The right wing for Bengaluru and the left back for Gokulam promised to be a mouthwatering personal duel and it lived up to its expectations. While Udanta was the hot favourites to win the personal duel, Provat Lakhra stood his ground well and made sure Udanta didn’t get past him often. He even tried to match Udanta’s pace and made some very good tackles and clearances.
Udanta, on the other hand, after failing to get past him in the first half, twerked his game a bit and managed to get past Provat on a few occasions in the second half, he even managed to get the assist for the equalising goal, and also scored the all-important winning goal from the last kick of the game.
#2 A game of two halves
While it was all Gokulam in the first half, Bengaluru turned the tables in the second half and finally managed to win the tie. Gokulam went on the offensive right from the word go and nearly scored in the first minute through a VP Suhair strike. Henry Kisseka gave Gokulam the lead. Gokulam had more than a few chances in the first half to extend the lead but failed to do so.
The story of the game changed drastically in the second half when BFC went on the offensive and threw the kitchen sink at Gokulam and finally equalised through a Miku goal and finally won the game through a Udanta strike from the last kick of the game.
It was the change in players or substitutions that had an adverse effect on the game. While Gokulam were forced to replace Addo due to an injury and that weakend the Gokulam defence which helped BFC snatch the win.
#1 Will the real Sunil Chhetri please stand up
Captain cool didn’t look so cool today and looked to lose his cool on a couple of occasions. He had five clear-cut goal scoring opportunities inside the box but failed to score. He was often beaten by Irshad, the Gokulam right back and failed to do anything meaningful down left for BFC. His passes were also very poor today, as he gave up the ball on more than a few occasions.
The chances he got in the first half were probably the best chances of the game and he failed to utilise it. His overall link-up play with Miku and Udanta also looked below par today.
