The league phase of Hero Indian Super League (ISL) 2017-18 drew to a thrilling conclusion on Sunday as FC Goa managed to get the better of Jamshedpur FC for the remaining semi-final spot. The Gaurs join Bengaluru FC, Chennaiyin FC and FC Pune in the top four after what’s been a pulsating league phase. Hero ISL 2017-18 has had it all with perennial contenders struggling and new contenders emerging. With the semi-finals starting from Wednesday, here’s a look back at the highlights from the season so far and the factors that shaped the league table.

Attractive and dominant Bengaluru

Bengaluru FC came into their debut Hero ISL season having already built a reputation of being one of the most successful clubs of recent times in Indian football. And led by their captain Sunil Chhetri, the Blues marched to the summit of the table with minimal fuss. They head into the semis in confident mood having registered the maximum number of wins (13) and the best goal difference (19) in league history. Their points tally of 40 and average of 2.22 points per game is also the most in a season. Bengaluru, in fact, qualified for the semis with three games to spare as they strung together a scintillating run that included a five-match winning streak and currently sees them unbeaten in their last eight fixtures.

A commendable Hero ISL bow by Jamshedpur

The league’s other new entrants Jamshedpur FC, meanwhile, have nothing to be ashamed of even though they narrowly missed out on the top four places and finished fifth. Much of the credit for their performances this season must go to their resolute defence which conceded just 18 goals and is the second tightest backline in the league after table-toppers Bengaluru, who’ve conceded 16 times. Their defence, which has kept the maximum clean sheets this season, offered them a strong foundation to build on. It took five matches for Jamshedpur’s defence to be breached, however, when the pressure for the top four places intensified it would be this strength of theirs that would ultimately lead to their downfall. Errors at the back – most notably the sending off of their goalkeeper in their last match – contributed to them conceding six of the 18 goals in their last three games of the season.

Opposing firsts for ATK and Pune while Highlanders miss out again

Outgoing champions ATK had a season of woes as they registered only four victories in the entire campaign to finish ninth in the league table. Hero ISL’s most successful club will, for the first time, not participate in the semi-finals. FC Pune City, on the other hand, find themselves on the other side of the spectrum having sealed a semi-final berth for the first time in their history. They finished fourth and will face Bengaluru FC in what promises to be an exciting semi-final tie. NorthEast United FC, however, failed to get into the top-four for the fourth consecutive season and finished rock-bottom. Their one highlight from the season though remains Seiminlen Doungel, who became the first Highlander to net a hat-trick as well as only the third Indian to do so in the league after Chhetri and Semboi Haokip.

Dynamics duos and the side with most scorers

Both Bengaluru FC and FC Goa owe a large part of their success to two of their players in particular. For the Blues, Chhetri and Miku have combined to score 24 of their 35 goals as Chhetri became the first Indian to bag 10 goals in a season while the Venezuelan tops the scoring charts for his team with 14 goals. As far as the Gaurs are concerned, their lethal form in front of goal can mostly be attributed to the Spanish pairing of Ferran Corominas and Manuel Lanzarote, who have collectively netted 30 of their side’s 42 goals. Another prolific pairing up front has been that of South Americans Marcelinho (8 goals) and Emiliano Alfaro (9 goals), who’ve accounted for 17 of Pune’s 30 goals. Chennai, meanwhile, have relied on their full squad to chip in with goals. They have as many as 11 individual scorers in the side – the most by any club this season.

Coro’s record-breaking heroics

Ferran Corominas has already bagged the most goals (18) by an individual in a single Hero ISL season with the semi-finals and a possible final still left to play. To put that into perspective, his goal a game average has put him just 10 shy of Hero ISL’s all-time leading goal-scorer Iain Hume. Not only that, the Spaniard became the first player to net back-to-back hat-tricks. The first one came against Bengaluru FC in a seven-goal thriller, while the second was against Kerala Blasters FC as the Gaurs hit their opponents for five.

Red under similar circumstances for opposing goalkeepers in same game

One of the most bizarre incidents so far occurred in the penultimate match of the league phase between Jamshedpur FC and FC Goa as both sides saw their goalkeepers being sent off for similar offences. Subrata Paul received his marching orders in the ninth minute when he came out of the box and handled the ball. His opposite number Naveen Kumar was then sent off in second half when he found himself in the same position as Paul. A total of four goalkeepers have been sent off this season with Bengaluru’s Gurpreet Singh Sandhu and NorthEast’s TP Rehenesh being the other two. The unwanted distinction of being sent off the most times this season goes to Delhi Dynamos FC’s Pratik Chowdhary, who saw red twice in Hero ISL 2017-18.