A ten-man Abahani Dhaka beat Bengaluru FC 2-0 at the Bangabandhu Stadium here on Wednesday to hand the 2016 finalist its first defeat of this year's AFC Cup campaign.
With the score tied at 0-0 and 11 minutes left, BFC was handed a big advantage when Mohammad Nasir’s hand-ball earned the Abahani player his second yellow card.
But it was Abahani which took the lead in the 87th minute when Saad Uddin tapped home a cross. The second goal came two minutes into injury time when Rubel Miya robbed Amrinder Singh off the ball and chipped into an empty goal from a distance.
After four matches, BFC shares the top spot with Maziya on nine points. With only the group topper going through to the next stage, BFC has its task cut out. It still has to travel to Mohun Bagan before hosting Maziya at the end of the month.
The defeat came inspite of BFC fielding a near-full strength side with Eugeneson Lyngdoh, Sunil Chhetri, Cameron Watson and John Johnson all back in the side. On the other hand, Abahani looked a much better side than the one which was beaten 2-0 in Bengaluru.
BFC's best chance of the first half came off Lyngdoh’s corner but Chhetri's header went straight to the Abahani custodian. In the second half, substitute Alwyn George and Daniel Lalhlimpuia were guilty of missing chances.
Alwyn's was perhaps the easier of the ones, but he blazed the ball over from close range after Chhetri had served a perfect cut-back from the tightest of angles.
The result: Abahani Dhaka 2 (Saad Uddin 87, Rubel Miya 90+2) bt Bengaluru FC 0
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