BENGALURU: Bengaluru FC ended their Indian Super League campaign with a 2-3 loss to Jamshedpur FC at Tilak Maidan on Thursday. Sunil Chhetri scored his 100th goal for the club, but things did not go according to plan as far as the match outcome was concerned. Stephen Eze, Seiminlen Doungel and David Grande scored three first half goals for Jamshedpur. Fran Gonzalez and Chhetri scored for the Bengaluru in the second half, but coming from three goals down proved to be way too much.
They were not at their full strength with Bengaluru gave chances to other players in the squad as well, which did not prove to be fruitful. With this result, Jamshedpur, on sixth place, collected their seventh win of the season while Bengaluru remained on seventh.
One thought that both the teams would take it relatively easy as they were already out of the playoff race, but it was not to be. Their pride was also on the line and they gave it their all throughout the contest. The first real chance of the game fell to Jamshedpur. Isaac Vanmalsawma delivered a good cross into the danger area, and Grande climbed to connect with his header, but it was straight to the goalkeeper Lalthuammawia Ralte in the 4th minute. Few minutes later, Bengaluru should have gone ahead as Chhetri found Udanta Singh on the box, but his shot was saved brilliantly by TP Rehenesh.
With the game moving from one box to the other quite quickly, it was Jamshedpur, who scored first as Eze scored a header in the 16th minute. Though Bengaluru saw plenty of the ball, they did not make the most of the it the final third. And the Men in Steel looked quite threatening going front. Doungel showed some good skill to get past a defender and double their lead immediately after the first water break. Things started to look embarrassing as Bengaluru conceded a third with Grande scoring an easy header.
After conceding three in the first half, Bengaluru felt the need to bring in some experience. Gonzalez and Erik Paartalu replaced Wungngayam Muirang and Ajith Kumar respectively. They were keen to get off the blocks quickly in the second half and they come close with Suresh Wangjam's effort going wide quite early.
Naushad Moosa's team looked a much better unit in the initial exchanges of the second half, asking problems to Jamshedpur defenders, who held firm. The latter could have scored their fourth of the content had Doungel found the back of the net after a one on one chance with the goalkeeper in the 54th minute.
But, it was Bengaluru,who managed to pull one back with Gonzalez scoring a header from close range. That goal gave them the much needed confidence and they began to threaten more. The ever reliable Chhetri scored a wonderful header to give hopes of a draw in the 71st minute. The way they played, it increasingly looked like Bengaluru would salvage a point. Despite their efforts, they failed to score the all-important equaliser in the dying minutes.
Dimas given arm band
The match also saw Dimas Delgado, who had left for Spain last month due to personal reasons, been given the arm band and interim coach Naushad Moosa explained what led to it. "Everybody knows that he had left for home. The reason was he had lost his dad," said Moosa. "He had the courage and said he would come back and finish the league. And as respect, Sunil thought of giving him the arm band as well." Delgado returned for the last two matches of this campaign.
However, with the team still to play in the AFC (Cup) in April, it remains to be seen if the 38-year-old will hold a key role in new coach Marco Pezzaiuoli's plans.