BENGALURU : Bengaluru FC coach Carles Cuadrat wanted to end the year on a high. After a tengame unbeaten run in the Indian Super League, all he needed was a positive result against ATK. His boys delivered that with a 1-0 win at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium on Thursday. Erik Paartalu’s 37th-minute header was enough for BFC to see ATK off and extend their unbeaten run to 11 games. With the win, BFC are top of league table with 27 points from 11 games.
Cuadrat made two changes to his starting XI on Thursday. Kean Lewis, who thus far, had come off the bench, started in place of a suspended Harmanjot Khabra, while Xisco Hernandez was brought back in place of Chencho Gyeltshen. Lewis repaid the trust with a fine performance on the left flank. For ATK, who have a poor attacking record, it was always going to be a mammoth task to challenge the BFC defence. While they attacked with more intensity, ATK’s forwards failed to convert chances. BFC had a shaky start.
ATK made early inroads with their wingers troubling the BFC defenders on either flank. Jayesh Rane, with his pace had kept BFC on their toes but couldn’t find the back of the net. ATK had seven corners in the first half but failed to make any of them count. BFC, after a slow start clawed their way back into the game. Rahul Bheke, who shifted to a left-back position after Nishu Kumar’s injury linked well with Lewis. In the 37th minute, Lewis received the ball from Bheke and his curling cross found Erik Paartalu.
The Aussie midfielder rose high to head it past Arindam Bhattacharya and put BFC in the lead. With a goal down, Steve Coppell’s boys had no other way but to press BFC high and they did just that. Balwant Singh had two clear chances of his own. In the 57th minute, he was one-on-one with Gurpreet Singh Sandhu but his went wide. Ten minutes later, Balwant received a brilliant through ball from John Johnson but shot it wide yet again. In the end, missed chances haunted ATK as BFC continued their unbeaten streak.