Bengaluru FC beat Sudeva to win RFDL title

Bengaluru FC defeated Sudeva Delhi FC 4-3 in penalties to emerge victorious in the final of the second season of the Reliance Foundation Developmental League (RFDL) on Sunday.

The Blues defended their title in style as they held their nerves in a tense shootout after a highly-motivated Sudeva unit put them behind twice in the regulation time.

The game ended 2-2 at the end of 90 minutes and only the barest of margins separated these two incredibly promising teams in the summit clash.

Sudeva opened the scoring with Seilanthang Lotjem capitalising on a cross from the right flank to round off a fine finish in the 17th minute. But Bengaluru didn't hold back and immediately counter-attacked, which resulted in Sudeva conceding a spot-kick to the Blues.

Their star midfielder Huidrom Thoi Singh broke no sweat in equalising the scores as both teams headed into the half-time with the match hanging properly in balance.

Sudeva took the lead when midfielder Daniel Gurung made a quick run to get at the end of a long ball from the backline and put it past the Bengaluru goalkeeper Sharon in the 48th minute.

The Blues yet again had to push hard to regain lost ground. Their efforts bore fruit with substitute forward Satendra Singh Yadav coming off the bench to hit a powerful strike from the edge of the box to again level the scores and eventually force the game into the penalty shootout.