Heart-break night for BFC

In the end, even Sunil Chhetri couldn’t save Bengaluru FC. The Indian Super League champions crashed out 3-4 on penalties against Maziya S&RC in the AFC Cup play-off second leg clash at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium on Wednesday.

Twice Chhetri dug his side out of the hole. Scoring the all-important second goal during regulation time to force extra time and again finding the net, again from a freekick, in the dying seconds to take the game into penalties. He scored in the shoot-out too, a panenka no less, but on this day, it proved a mountain too high for BFC to conquer.

After a toothless first half, Deshorn Brown opened the scoring in the 58th minute, smashing in his shot after Suresh Singh Wangjam produced a thrilling solo run on the left flank and pulled the ball back.

Ibrahim Waheed pulled the visitors level in the 74th minute, cancelling BFC’s away goal advantage, applying the finishing touches to a move which saw Cornelius Ezekiel beat three players in a mazy run before squaring the ball.

Chhetri then put the home side back on top six minutes later by turning in a rebound from Nili Perdomo’s long-range effort to extend the game a further 30 minutes.

Maziya struck again in the 103rd minute after Ezekiel latched onto a pass, which went just past the outstretched leg of Juanan, from Aisam Ibrahim and finished cooly.

BFC, now throwing the kitchen sink, again struck through a freekick from Chhetri. With the game finishing 4-4 and the away goals rule void for goals in extra time, the match went to a penalty shootout.

The teams were even stevens -- 3-3 -- after the opening 10 spot-kicks. Bheke had his effort saved. Brown, with the game up for grabs at 3-2, fired high allowing Maziya to get back into the game. For BFC, Gurpreet Singh Sandhu saved Petar Planic’s kick while Mohammad M Sharif blasted over. BFC and Maziya then had to be separated via sudden death.

In sudden death, Parag Shrivas, one of BFC’s young boys, shot over while Hussain Nihan fired his spot-kick in to send the Maziya players and the bench into a frenzy.

Earlier, Maziya looked threatening in spurts, often let down by poor decision making in the final third, but was well contained by the home side. Except for the two goals, they hardly had a sniff at goal through the night.

BFC, meanwhile, created chances and as they had been through the season, failed to find the finishing touch. For all the class from Paartalu on possession and the hustle and bustle of Suresh Singh Wangjam and Ashique’s impressive dribbles, especially when he controlled an overhead ball on his stride by the touchline with a silken touch, the final ball remained missing. That ended up costing BFC dear.