Bengaluru FC– 1 (Odei Zabala (og)) Hyderabad FC- 0 ()
Kolkata, Thursday, September 15, 2022:
An own goal at the half-hour mark by Spanish defender
Odei Onaindia Zabala, was enough for Bengaluru FC (BFC) to overcome the challenge of Indian Super
League (ISL) champions Hyderabad FC (HFC) and make the final of the 131st IndianOil Durand Cup.
It was a largely cagey second semi-final played here at the Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan
(VYBK) with HFC having the lion’s share of chances as well as possession and their star striker
Batholomew Ogbeche being wasteful for once, but in the end The Blues did well enough to win the
battle of ISL heavyweights.
All 47 games of the 131st IndianOil Durand Cup are being telecast LIVE on Sports18 1 SD
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The match began with no team willing to give an inch and as a result there were quite a few rough
challenges witnessed. BFC’s Parag Shrivas was shown a yellow card early.
The goal came quite against the run of play and in what was probably BFC’s first proper attack of the
match. Jayesh Rane played right to Prabir Das, who delivered the perfect cross across the face of goal
for Roy Krishna. The Fijian striker got a touch but Zabala, the BFC central defender in-fact deflected it
into the back of his own net in the end.
HFC exerted good pressure after the goal and in one particular instance Yasir found Ogbeche with a
cross but the Nigerian just missed the target.
The half-ended with a chance for Sunil Chetri after he got at the end of a long ball but his volley went
over the roof of the net. HFC had 68% possession in the half and three shots on goal to BFC’s one.
The second-half as has been the norm, began with each team making one substitution each. BFC gave
Rohit Kumar a break and brought in Namgyal Bhutia. HFC brought in Sahil Tavora in place of Hitesh
Sharma.
There were two more great chances for Ogbeche to score in the half and help bring HFC level. The first
in the 49th minute saw him take a powerful header off a measured cross delivered by Nikhil Poojary, but
Gurpreet Sandhu in BFC goal, was up to the task. Then in the 77th, a move involving Halicharan and
Borja Herrerra found him in space for a shot at goal, but he was just off-target yet again.
There weren’t too many clear chances in the game after that and it ensured that there was going to be a
first-time winner of the IndianOil Durand Cup, come Sunday.
