BENGALURU: Bengaluru FC came into their Hyderabad FC clash at Fatorda Stadium on Saturday as strong favourites. But, they hardly did justice to the tag as Hyderabad put up a confident display while the Blues looked off-colour for the majority of the match to share the spoils in a 0-0 clash. Also, it is the first goalless draw of the Indian Super League season as well.
Carles Cuadrat’s men had an off day at the office, especially upfront. They did not have a single shot on target. That is not expected from a team, which made some decent signings in the transfer window, which included Kristian Ospeth and Cleiton Silva. The former, who was substituted at the start of second-half, was easily pushed off the ball and did not threaten much as well. They did not test Subrata Paul in goal, which is a concern for the former champions. However, Bengaluru defence did well enough to keep a clean sheet.
The first 45 minutes witnessed Hyderabad being more confident on the ball. They did have their fair share of the chances but failed to find the back of the net. In fact, Hyderabad deserved to take the lead in the 24th minute, but it was the brilliance of Bengaluru goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, which denied Aridane Santana’s header with a top-notch save. Though Bengaluru failed to impress, one has to credit Hyderabad defence, which stood tall against the likes of Sunil Chhetri and others.
Hyderabad can be considered unlucky with injuries in the contest as they lost key foreign players -- Joel Chianese, Lluis Sastre -- to injuries in the first half. But that did not dampen their spirit and kept pressing after the break as well.
Cuadrat also decided to introduce Dimas Delgado at the start of the second half. And they reinforced fresh legs in forward Deshorn Brown fifteen minutes later, but he did not get clear cut chances in the final third to make an impression.
The last 30 minutes witnessed some box to box action with both teams getting chances to score the elusive winner. But that didn't happen with both teams lacking quality when it mattered most while delivering the final ball or finding the net.
With this result, Bengaluru collect their second straight draw of the season and Hyderabad maintain their top-four spot after the completion of their first two matches.