#2 Lacklustre start from Bengaluru
In the initial phases of the game, Bengaluru did not look like a side playing with any kind of confidence. They weren’t moving the ball around quickly enough, they weren’t playing the easy passes well and this made life difficult for them.
Instead, what we saw was a nervous Bengaluru which had not been the case in any of the five previous games under Roca. Udanta and Khabra were heavily involved in the opening exchanges and the pair matched each other misplaced pass for misplaced pass.
To round off Bengaluru’s problems, they were giving away cheap fouls in midfield, with Udanta and Eugeneson Lyngdoh being the chief culprits. Lyngdoh was even booked for making a horrendous challenge on Yuta Kiwonaki.
But luckily for Bengaluru, the breakthrough arrived in the 25th minute. Udanta put the ball into the net from a few yards out after an almighty goalmouth scramble. The goal calmed the team down and they then went on to play some delightful football.
Udanta was creating havoc for Sena Singh and that meant Vishal Kaith in goal had to be at the top of his game to take the teams into half-time with the scoreline at 1-0.
Bengaluru were still the better side in the opening exchanges, even with all their mistakes, and maybe it was just a case of having opening day jitters, but in those initial minutes, they made things as difficult for themselves as they possibly could.
