Siva Sakthi, Roy Krishna strikes see Bengaluru through

Bengaluru FC– 2 (Siva Sakthi 98’ Roy Krishna 120+2) Odisha FC- 1 (Diego Mauricio 115’)
Kolkata, Saturday, September 10, 2022:

A goal with the last touch of the game by Roy Krishna and
a strike fromN. Siva Sakthi- his fourth of the tournament, saw Bengaluru FC(BFC) pull off a 2-1 victory
over a 10-man Odisha FC (OFC) in the second quarter-final of the 131st IndianOil Durand Cup, played
here at the Kishore Bharati Krirangan (KBK) on Saturday evening. Diego Mauricio got the equalizing
goal for the Juggernauts. The Blues thus become the second team after local giants Mohammedan
Sporting to make it to the semi-finals and have now made it to the last four stage in all their four
appearances in Asia’s oldest football tournament.
All 47 games of the 131st IndianOil Durand Cup are being telecast LIVE on Sports18 1 SD
& HD and Sports18 Khel as well as livestreamed on the Over the Top (OTT) platform
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What transpired during the 30-minutes of extra time could not be predicted during what turned out to be
a scrappy and ill-tempered 90-minutes of regulation time, which ended goalless. As many as eight yellow
cards were shown in that time and Shubham Sarangi of OFC got the marching orders in the 85th minute
for a second bookable offence. Credit must be given to Odisha in the way they fought for close to 40
minutes after that incident.
There were about two chances of note in the first half and both fell to Odisha. Diego Mauricio broke free
in the eighth minute, but his shot from close to the keeper went well wide off target. Three minutes later,
Nandhakumar in the second attempt, hit straight at Blues keeper Gurpreet Sandhu, who had no problems
in stopping that one.
It turned all untidy after that leading to about four yellow cards being shown in the first 45 minutes itself.
The second-half was as uninspiring as the first. Blues sentre-back Sandesh Jhingan got the first proper
scoring chance in the 64th minute, when he rose highest off a Javi free-kick from the left, but missed a
proper connection with his head.
The best chance for the Blues however came in the 76th from a second Javi free-kick from round about
the same spot and this time won by substitute Leon Augustine. Jovanovic, their second centre-back, had
come up from defence for this one and found himself with a free-header. He did connect too but it lacked
direction unfortunately.
Meanwhile, the young and fresh legs brought on by BFC coach Simon Grayson like Leon, Faisal, Udanta
and Siva Sakthi were sure to provide dividends in extra time and they did.
In the very first minute, Roy Krishna sneaked in behind a Parag cross from the left, but could not trap
cleanly to take advantage of it.
The Blues finally broke through in the 98th minute. Faisal got hold of the ball on the left flank, dodged
one defender and played an intelligent grounded cross to Leon, who was in space inside the box on the
near post. He took a touch forward and shot a powerful left-footer towards goal. Keeper L. Ralte did save
it but the rebound fell towards a lurking Siva Sakthi who struck a first-time volley home before OFC
defender Osama Malik could challenge him. It was a fantastic opportunistic strike by the young striker.
The goal brought the game to life suddenly and to their credit Odisha really stepped it up and begun to
look the better team with 10-men.
Aussie Osama himselfin the 103rd minute, got a free-header but his flick went straight to Gurpreet. Then
Pedro Martin just before the end of the first half of extra-time, got behind the BFC defence wonderfully
off a Raynier free-kick, but with only Gurpreet to beat, botched his connection.
The Juggernauts got a deserving equalizer when off a Sahil Panwar free-kick from the left flank,
Mauricio rose above his marker Jovanovic to beat Gurpreet with a strong well-placed header.
Just as it looked like the game was headed towards penalties, Ralte made the blunder of putting the ball
out of touch with seconds to go for the final whistle. The quickly taken throw-in reached an unmarked
Krishna about 25-yards out and the Fijian unleashed a powerful right-footed curler to beat Ralte all ends
up.

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