Jamshedpur hands Bengaluru its second successive home defeat

Bengaluru FC remains second in the table on 12 points but having played more games than its nearest rivals and with no points to show in two consecutive home games — a rarity in recent times — it will bring no cheer.

Trinidade Matheus (jersey no. 8) celebrates with his teammates after converting the spot kick.

Bengaluru FC was left seething as Jamshedpur FC nicked a 1-0 win in the Indian Super League at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium on Thursday. Brazilian Trinidade Matheus converted a penalty in the 90th minute after Rahul Bheke clumsily brought down South Africa's Sameehg Doutie to hand BFC its second successive home defeat.

But BFC can blame no one but itself as it missed two gilt-edged chances in the final quarter hour of play. In the 76th minute, Harmanjhot Singh Khabra played a defence-splitting pass to let Sunil Chhetri free on goal but Jamshedpur custodian Subrata Paul pulled off a fine save. Then, with five minutes to go, Miku couldn't convert from inside the six-yard box which was to leave his side ruing later.

Matchcentre

BFC remains second in the table on 12 points but having played more games than its nearest rivals and with no points to show in two consecutive home games — a rarity in recent times — it will bring no cheer.

In the first half, Jamshedpur played to a set plan — to deny BFC any space to work its way through the middle while pumping the odd long ball to initiate its own attacks. The only way left for the home team was to stretch play. It was from there that the first chance was created when in the 19th minute, Miku after dodging past Jose Espinosa, crossed for Chhetri who failed to connect well.

Bengaluru FC skipper Sunil Chhetri is distraught.

 

The BFC skipper was at the end of two more such balls, both from Eduardo Garcia Martin, but they did little to trouble Subrata. The first these involved a fine move in which Garcia split the visitor's central midfield with an intelligent backheel, then played a neat one-two with Miku, before swinging it in. Unfortunately for BFC such passages of play were few and far between.

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Jamshedpur was a far different side in the second half as its counter-attacks were well directed and Jerry Mawihmingthanga and Kervens Belfort were central to that. Less than ten minutes after the restart, Gurpreet Sandhu fended off Belfort from point-blank range. Belfort then fed Farukh Choudhary and Jerry in quick succession; Farukh fluffed his with a bad first-touch while Jerry's low shot across the goal was agonisingly close. In the end, these didn't prove costly.