BENGALURU: With Albert Roca-coached Bengaluru FC making their Indian Super League debut following four trophy-laden I-League years, expectations were high. They comfortably beat Mumbai City FC 2-0 in the opener, and now face Delhi Dynamos at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium on Sunday. Looking back on their performance, it may seem an easy fixture for the hosts. It could be anything but, however. Dynamos won their opening fixture against Pune City FC.
Both teams play a possession-based football, with short passing. Despite the similarities, BFC lack in converting chances while Dynamos hold an edge in that aspect. “If I say I’m not happy with the Mumbai result, it would be a furious statement. The result was in our favour. But there is a lot of room for improvement. We played to our strategy but our conversion percentage is worrisome.
If we play with the satisfaction of a win, it will be difficult,” Roca said. BFC created 16 chances against MCFC but scored twice, while Dynamos converted three of their 12 chances, despite playing a solo forward in Kalu Uche. For BFC, however, Sunil Chhetri, Nicolas Fedor, Udanta Singh, Eduardo Garcia and Braulio Nobrega missed chances. Roca said the team had worked on it in training. “I will not be honest if I say everything went well. But I trust my strikers and players around them creating opportunities for them.
I must say we played well in creating chances. But I agree we could not convert 50 percent of them. We surely worked on that,” he said. “As long as we are able to create chances, we can still hold an edge over the opponents as they will be forced to defend. However, we must improve on conversion as we suffered last year.” Delhi coach Miguel Angel Portugal feels the team scoring the first goal in the match will hold an advantage. Both teams play a similar Spanish style in holding the ball, so it will be difficult for the trailing side to make a comeback.
Roca believes his defenders can pull off the job and claim a clean sheet as they did against Mumbai. But it is to be remembered the MCFC attack hardly tested BFC’s defence. The Mumbai game cannot be a benchmark. “Delhi are a tough opponent. I believe my players can do the job,” Roca said. Bengaluru FC players in training at the Bangalore Football Stadium on Saturday
krishnendu@newindianexpress.com