Home side Bengaluru FC overcame Jamshedpur FC 2-0 in an Indian Super League (ISL) contest at the Sree Kanteerava stadium on Thursday.
An Erik Paartalu header off a Dimas Delgado corner gave Bengaluru an early lead in the eighth minute, while a Sunil Chhetri goal in the second half sealed three points for the host.
MATCH HIGHLIGHTS | Bengaluru 2 - 0 Jamshedpur, Chhetri and Paartalu score
Find below the key talking points from the game:
- Jamshedpur is clearly missing Castel and Piti -
Gourav Mukhi finally returned to the ISL after serving a six-month suspension for age fraud. But he was not enough to revive Jamshedpur's fortunes. The visitor's attackers clearly struggled to find the back of the net on the night. New signing David Grande played as the centre forward with Farukh Choudhary and Mukhi on either side, however, none of them made an impact. Moreover, Aitor Monroy, Noe Acosta and Amarjit Kiyam were struggling to create chances for their forwards from midfield as well. Suffice to say, Antonio Iriondo's Jamshedpur side is missing key players Piti and Sergio Castel.
- Bengaluru's old guns show the youngsters how it's done -
Chhetri (35) scored at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium once again. This is the fifth straight game he has done that. This one, though, was an absolute gift from Jamshedpur keeper Subrata Paul and defender Narender Gahlot. Paartalu (33), the scorer of the opener, had put in a long ball from midfield and it looked like either a straightforward clearance for the defender or a straightforward save for the keeper.
MATCH REPORT | ISL: Paartalu, Chhetri take Bengaluru to second spot
But both Subrata and Narender thought the other person had things under control and messed it up altogether. Chhetri ran towards the ball chipped it over Subrata and calmly slotted it home. Earlier in the day, Paartalu had jumped the highest during a Delgado (36) corner to give his side the lead. This shows that despite both Ashique Kuruniyan (22) and Udanta Singh (23) being pacy on the wings, they need to learn a thing or two about perfect execution from the old guns.
- Things get even more tight at the top -
There's very little to separate the top three teams (FC Goa, Bengaluru FC and ATK) in the 2019-20 ISL season. Be it wins, losses or goal difference theses teams are neck-to-neck. Even their top scorers in this competition - Ferran Corominas, Chhetri and Roy Krishna - have the same number of goals - eight (8). Their goalkeepers are the top three in the clean sheet leaders' list as well. With the fight at the top being this close, there will be very little margin for error. FC Goa leads the pack with 24 points from 12 games, while Bengaluru now has 22 from the same number of matches. ATK, on the other hand, has 21 with a game in hand against Kerala Blasters on Sunday.
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