Football
Durand Cup 2022: How an own goal helped Bengaluru FC reach the final
This the first time the Blues have reached the final of the historic cup competition.
Bengaluru FC beat Hyderabad FC 1-0 in the Durand Cup semi-final thanks to a fortuitous own goal courtesy of a Nizams defender. Moreover, Bengaluru's stellar defending with custodian Gurpreet Singh Sandhu at the heart of it kept the likes of Bartholomew Ogbeche at bay.
The Blues will now face Mumbai City FC on Sunday, 18th September in the final. The Islanders come off the back of a 1-0 win against Mohammedan SC. This is the first time both sides have reached the final of this tournament.
The semi-final began with no team willing to give an inch and as a result there were quite a few rough challenges witnessed. BFC's Parag Shrivas was shown a yellow card early.
The goal came quite against the run of play and in what was probably BFC's first proper attack of the match. Jayesh Rane played right to Prabir Das, who delivered the perfect cross across the face of goal for Roy Krishna. The Fijian striker got a touch but Zabala, the BFC central defender in-fact deflected it into the back of his own net in the end.
HFC exerted good pressure after the goal and in one particular instance Yasir found Ogbeche with a cross but the Nigerian just missed the target.
The half-ended with a chance for Sunil Chetri after he got at the end of a long ball but his volley went over the roof of the net. HFC had 68% possession in the half and three shots on goal to BFC's one.
The second-half as has been the norm, began with each team making one substitution each. BFC gave Rohit Kumar a break and brought in Namgyal Bhutia. HFC brought in Sahil Tavora in place of Hitesh Sharma.
There were two more great chances for Ogbeche to score in the half and help bring HFC level. The first in the 49th minute saw him take a powerful header off a measured cross delivered by Nikhil Poojary, but Gurpreet Sandhu in BFC goal, was up to the task.
Then in the 77th, a move involving Halicharan and Borja Herrerra found him in space for a shot at goal, but he was just off-target yet again. There weren't too many clear chances in the game after that and it ensured that there was going to be a first-time winner of the IndianOil Durand Cup, come Sunday.
