Bengaluru FC march past Delhi

Bengaluru: Last year's runners-up Bengaluru FC began their fresh Indian Super League campaign with a bang in front of a boisterous home crowd as they defeated rechristened SC Delhi 2-0 at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium here on Sunday.

Returning to their home ground to see their beloved team after almost a year, the match almost was filled with everything they wanted to witness.

A goal from the club's stalwart Sunil Chhetri (making him the oldest-ever goalscorer in the history of the league at 41), a blinder of a save by Gurpreet Singh Sandhu disallowing a lead to the visitors and the Viking Claps with the West Block Blues stand!

The match never went beyond BFC's reach with Sivasakthi N, who largely was quiet for most of the match, scoring the opening goal of the season in the 45+1st minute from a tap-in while Chhetri sealed the deal with another injury time goal at 90+4th.

BFC felt bullish from the word go with a roaring crowd backing them. Forwards, especially from right, found gaps in an unsettled Delhi defense, who committed an early error of losing the ball in their defensive third.

This allowed two telling opportunities in the first three minutes with both the wingers Ryan Williams and Ashique Kuruniyan to score. Debutant Ashique came the closest with a glancing header tipped over the crossbar by goalkeeper Vishal Yadav after Williams went wide from the right.

The intensity, however, was short lived as Delhi defense soon settled down with their pact midfield plugging the gaps while lone pivot Fanai Lalremtluanga seemed a bit cut off from the two box-to-box midfielders - Argentinian Braiain Fernandez and Suresh Singh Wangham.

BFC are too early in the season with players, in spite of all the eagerness, were bit rusty following the forced elongated off season. The telepathic connection between players wasn't there yet, allowing the visitors not just to settle down but soon foray into counter-attacks, albeit sporadically.

However it did turn dangerous when midfielder Mohammed Azhar wrestled past his marker during a counter-attack to put a beautiful through ball for sprinting Augustine Lalrochana from the right.

The wide forward shot low for the far post with power but not enough to go past BFC and India's No. 1 Gurpreet for an amazing save that brought the crowd on its feet.

BFC didn't squander this momentum as the first goal of the match came right at the beginning of injury time when left full back Roshan Singh floated a ball deep into the box for an overlapping right back Nikhil Poojari, who headed to an unmarked Sivasakthi to tap into the goal to send the crowd into a jubilation.

With the lead taken, BFC came back into the half much more confident while Delhi's continued reliance on sitting back and wait for an opening wasn't bothering the hosts anymore, who used defensive lateral passing neatly to control the tempo of the game with defensive midfielder Fanai at the heart of it.

A couple of chances did pop up from the patient build up but not enough to please the crowd, who demanded their favourite Chhetri's introduction to the game.

Coach Renedy Singh, who deployed 4-1-4-1 formation waited for a bit but duly obliged as he brought in the veteran less than 15 minutes from the culmination of the regulation time.

The coach also made changes to the formation, making the backline compact to see out the rest of the match as visitors started showing urgency in hunt of the equaliser.

The opportunity arrived at the 88th minute for Delhi with substitute Chhunga Hmar sending a threatening cross from the right flank towards Alan Saji, whose header only found the side net.

The missed chance came to bite them almost instantly as Chhetri put the game beyond their reach with a goal in the injury time when a counter-attack saw him race towards the goal all alone, forcing the goalkeeper to rush outside the box. The experienced Indian took a nice touch past him before calmly kicking the ball into an empty net.

Result: Bengaluru FC: 2 (N Sivasakthi 45+1st, Sunil Chhetri 90+4th) bt SC Delhi: 0