Bengaluru: Westwood's men taste first defeat at home as Chidi and Moga strike.
After a seven match unbeaten streak at home in their highly impressive debut season, Bengaluru Football Club’s fortress was breached with East Bengal registering a 2-0 win over the home side at the Bangalore Football Stadium here on Sunday.
With goals in either half by James Saeed Moga and Edeh Chidi, East Bengal, who had beaten the Sunil Chhetriled side at home in Kolkata in October, came with a game plan and executed it to perfection.
“We wanted to start strong and score early in the first half and then slow down the game in the second half,” said the winning team manager Armando Colaco at the post match press conference.
BFC still lead the table with 27 points while the win saw East Bengal jump to the sixth spot.
The home side started with N.S. Manju and Vishal Kumar in the defense to fill in for John Johnson (suspended) and Keegan Perreira (injured) while newly recruited Soram Poirie Anganba started in the goal.
To begin with, the home side was a little sluggish and was caught off-guard early when a rampant Moga, who had a chance a few minutes before, struck a fierce shot that Poirie tipped over the bar.
East Bengal opened their account in the 17th minute when a long kick from the goal keeper was controlled by Moga.
The striker then muscled his way past the centre backs before rounding the on rushing goalkeeper to stroke the ball calmly into the open goal.
The Bengaluru side’s only good chance came in the 24th minute when Sean Rooney struck the crossbar with a looping header.
The ‘Men of Steel’ introduced Beikhokhei Beingaichho in the second half and the switch almost paid off when the winger played Darren Caldeira behind the defense only to see the latter shoot agonisingly wide.
BFC grew in confidence as the match wore on with Siam Hangal firing in a stinging shot from outside the box that struck the upright.
With tempers rising on the field, the crowd started throwing water bottles at the East Bengal goalkeeper. The BFC players had to intervene to prevent any untoward incident.
The resurgent home side was dealt a severe blow in the 79th minute when Edeh Chidi slammed in the second for the visiting side from an acute angle, against the run of play.
Having received the ball from a tight angle, Chidi unleashed a fierce shot that went through the goalkeepers hand and into the net.
“We are disappointed. The turning point was conceding a sloppy goal,” said BFC coach Ashley Westwood. “We were the dominant side and they wasted a lot of time in the second half and disrupted our rhythm,” lamented the Englishman.
