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Bengaluru FC beat Kerala Blasters FC by a 4-2 margin in the 27th match of the 2020-21 Indian Super League Season at the Fatorda Stadium in Margao, Goa. The two Southern rivals went into the half-time break with a 1-1 scoreline, but goals from Erik Paartalu, Dimas Delgado and Sunil Chhetri ensured that BFC took all the three points.
Bright start from Kerala Blasters FC
Although Bengaluru FC rotated the ball amongst themselves in the early minutes, Kerala Blasters quickly settled into the game. Bengaluru FC did earn a few corners and set-pieces but the usual co-ordination was missing everytime.
First, Facundo Pereyra played a diagonal cross to release Jordan Murray on the right side of the pitch. Murray produced a powerful shot but Gurpreet Singh Sandhu pushed it away. Just a minute later, Bengaluru FC gave away the ball from their free-kick. Gary Hooper broke free before passing the ball to Rahul KP with acres of space. The speedy winger then struck the ball past Gurpreet to put Kerala 1-0 ahead.
The game quietened out for a while before Ashique Kuruniyan’s cross was left as a dummy by Opseth. But Bakary Kone intercepted before the ball could reach Cleiton Silva. Kerala Blasters were pretty close to conceding a second as Chhetri lobbed a pass for Opseth, but Lalruatthara intervened at the right time.
Immediately after the second half began, Kristian Opseth was brought down by Bakary Kone inside the box. The referee Crystal John rightfully awarded Bengaluru FC a penalty. However, the BFC skipper Sunil Chhetri surprisingly missed as he chipped the ball straight to Albino Gomes.
However, that miss didn’t prove too costly as Ashique Kuruniyan drilled in a low cross for Opseth to tap in. Even though it was the Norwegian who struck it, the Bengaluru FC defensive midfielder Erik Partaalu got a touch before the ball went in.
Kerala Blasters piled on more misery on themselves when Albino Gomes’ pass to Lalruatthara was intercepted by Cleiton Silva. The Brazilian cut it back into the box where Kristian Opseth left it for Dimas Delgado. The latter put the ball past the keeper in a beautiful manner.
The action didn’t stop there as Facundo Pereyra’s free-kick was headed on target by Vicente Gomez. The Australian Jordan Murray claimed that he got a touch before the ball went into the net as the Yellow Army got some hope for a comeback. However, there was controversy in that goal as Murray was off-side when Vicente Gomez headed the ball. Bengaluru FC’s goalkeeper Gurpreet was also at fault as it was a shot that should be saved by a player of his standard.
Four minutes later, Bengaluru FC ensured that the lead didn’t slip away. A delicious cross from Harmanjot Khabra was met by a bullet header from Sunil Chhetri to make it 4-2.
After this sixth goal on the night, there were plenty of substitutions as the players from both sides got tired. Even a cooling break didn’t help as Kerala Blasters seemed bereft of ideas to stage a comeback. There were a few chances for the trailing side, but even those were situations where the forwards were off-side. In the end, Bengaluru FC did well to close out without conceding any more goals.
ISL 2020-21, BFC vs KBFC: Who was the Hero of the Match?
The creative midfielder Dimas Delgado was named as the ‘Hero of the Match’ for his neat performance against Kerala Blasters. Dimas Delgado placed the ball beyond Albino Gomes in the 53rd minute to score just his third-ever ISL goal. After lacking creativity in the first two games, Dimas Delgado’s inclusion has seen Bengaluru FC coming up with a lot more chances from open play.
The 37-year-old’s main strength is the fact that he doesn’t try to do anything out of the ordinary. This helps the Bengaluru FC midfielder to achieve perfection just like he did against Kerala with 88.5 % passing accuracy. For Bengaluru FC to do well, Dimas Delgado needs to be fit and healthy.
