ISL 2018-19, Bengaluru FC 2-1 NorthEast United FC: 5 Talking Points

#2 Chencho the go-to man for BFC against Northeast, Gurpreet saves the day

Chencho proved to be the difference between the two sides (Image Courtesy: ISL)

The last time both these sides met each other was just before Christmas 2018 in Guwahati. That day too NorthEast had the edge over Bengaluru and scored to take the lead, but then the man from Bhutan, Chencho, came on to score in the dying embers of the game to give Bengaluru a much-needed point from the tie.

The goal also helped Bengaluru FC keep their unbeaten streak intact at that point of time.

Today also the Bhutanese Ronaldo, as his fans call him, was bought into the game in the second half and just like last time he had an impact on the play.

Juanan flicked the ball from a Rahul Bheke long throw, and Chencho found himself in the clear to tap the ball in from Juanan's flick to score the winning goal of the game.

With rumours of Chencho being offloaded to an I-League team on loan for the rest of season doing the rounds, Chencho just made his case to stay put in BFC more stronger after scoring against Northeast United.

The main hero for BFC wasn't wearing Blue though as he was wearing bright yellow and stood as the guardian of the BFC goal.

With ten saves to his name tonight Gurpreet was rightly awarded as the man of the match. He did a tremendous job to keep the league's top goal scorer Ogbeche at bay.

His save during the one on one situation with Northeast new signing Triadis was the turning point of the game as Northeast was piling on the pressure at that instant.

With keepers like Amrinder and Subrata Paul putting up a challenge to claim the best keeper in the country title, Gurpreet just showed the nation why the majority of football critics still think of him as the nations best-shot stopper.