Bengaluru FC sealed their place in the final of the Hero Indian Super League (Hero ISL) for the second successive season with a 3-0 win against NorthEast United FC in the second leg of their semi-final encounter at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru on Monday. The Blues were made to work hard by a resilient NorthEast side, who were finally outdone by a 72nd-minute goal from Miku. Late strikes from Dimas Delgado and Sunil Chhetri followed as Bengaluru overturned the 2-1 defeat from the first leg. The aggregate score read 4-2 in favour of the Bengaluru, who will now look to land their first ever Hero ISL title on Sunday.

After the entertaining tie, Bengaluru's Miku and Rahul Bheke shared their thoughts on the match. Here are the excerpts.

Miku

How does it feel to be through to the final?

It’s an amazing sensation. The second year in a row we’ve won the regular league and also reached the final. We hope this season, we have a different final from the last season. We are very happy today. We have a great team. Everybody worked very hard. NorthEast United FC had a great season but in the end, there can only be one team and it is us.

How relieved were you after scoring?

This is football, you know. Sometimes you score the hardest of goals and miss the easy chances. The only way to have more chances in the match is to clear your mind after every minute, forget the misses and think of getting new opportunities.

A word on the fans.

Amazing! Amazing support! This season, they will travel to Mumbai to see the final. We hope to have a great crowd there because we need a lot of help. They are our 12th player and they know that.

Rahul Bheke

Did the rotation in the middle of the season help the squad tonight?

Yeah, it does help us because some of the players got injuries and some of the players played a lot of matches. They were tired, so it helped us and you can see now, we have a fresh squad. All the players are there and available for the matches.

How excited are you for the final in your hometown of Mumbai?

Yes! It’s my home so I’m looking forward to a great match over there. It’s going to be a tough one and we’re ready for it.

From the NorthEast camp, Panagiotis Triadis joined in for a short post-match chat. Here's what he had to say.

What went wrong tonight?

It’s very tough to say now, right after the match. I think we lost because of our own mistakes. I think it was some tactical mistakes that we did and it’s very unfortunate. I think that we deserved more and we’ve shown it the whole season.

Thoughts on the season.

I'm very proud of what the team has achieved so far, but I do have to admit that the disappointment tonight is taking over. I’m just very sad and disappointed that we couldn’t draw the match or at least, go to the final.

How much did you miss Bartholomew Ogbeche?

Of course, he’s our captain. He’s an important player. I do believe we had a few injuries. I don’t know how severe Federico's (Gallego) injury is, but I heard it’s pretty severe. We had Bart (Ogbeche) who was injured as well. Yeah, it’s just a very unfortunate turn of events.

Read the Match Report here.