BENGALURU: Bengaluru FC had lost to Chennaiyin FC twice at home last season. That run almost continued in Sunday’s Indian Super League game as well. But thanks to Miku’s thundering 41st-minute strike, the Carles Cuadrat-coached side claimed an unconvincing 1-0 win in front of 20,786 people, at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium here.
The story of the first half was not something the visitors would have expected. Instead of going 2-0 up, they were down one-nil at the break. In a half, where chances were hard to come by thanks to solid defensive displays by both sets of centre-backs, Chennaiyin almost went up in the 19th minute. Gregory Nelson’s fantastic through ball found Jeje Lalpekhlua, who instead of taking the shot himself, passed to Germanpreet Singh, who failed to find the net.
Jeje had another go in the 34th minute. A poor back pass from Rahul Bheke saw Jeje intercept the ball. The Mizo striker found himself one-on-one with Gurpreet, whom he tried to beat but couldn’t create space and ended up taking the ball out of the goal-line.
“We were a little bit sloppy in front of goal. We should have been ahead in the first half. But probably, it’s the nerves of the first game that spoke. But there are a lot of positives to take from this game. We started with a loss last season but still managed to win the league. So I think things wouldn’t be bad going forward,” Chennaiyin coach John Gregory said after the game.
The two missed chances perhaps had a psychological effect on the visitors. They couldn’t create further chances in the first half. Bengaluru were suddenly in a scoring position. Following a short midfield battle, Bengaluru’s Xisco Hernandez won the ball and found Miku. The Venezuelan striker, following a short run, made no mistake and his powerful shot gave Chennaiyin’s Karanjit Singh no chance.
As the game progressed, Chennaiyin lost their edge and let Bengaluru dominate the midfield. While the hosts failed to create chances, Chennaiyin’s Jerry Lalrinzuala almost put them level in the 76th minute. His freekick from the right of the box beat Gurpreet and went inches wide.
Cuadrat felt Bengaluru played well tactically.
“I think it was a good game. We knew Chennaiyin would be strong as they are the champions. They started well but we wanted to take advantage of the counter attacks. Whatever chances they created, it was due to individual mistakes. Otherwise, we were good tactically and took advantage of that to score the goal.”
krishnendu@newindianexpress.com