Bengaluru FC had to settle for a point following a last-gasp equaliser by Hyderabad FC in their 1-1 draw at the G.M.C. Balayogi Athletic Stadium on Friday. Sunil Chhetri scored the fastest goal of the season to give the Blues the lead and Bengaluru looked on course for the win after Hyderabad were reduced to 10 men following Sahil Panwar’s sending off 11 minutes into the second period. However, super-sub Robin Singh equalised in injury time against his former club to earn his side a point.

Bengaluru head coach Carles Cuadrat admitted that his side contributed to the result with their failure to score a second despite creating several chances. “It was a good opportunity for us to get the three points and go top of the table, but we just weren’t good enough to score a second goal. When you are only one goal up, these things happen, and you concede many times in this fashion in football. In the last moments of a game anything can happen, and we weren’t able to avoid conceding tonight,” he told reporters at the post-match press conference.

Having said that, Cuadrat insisted it’s nothing he didn’t expect going by how the game panned out. “I am not shocked (that it ended in a draw). I have been in the football industry all my life, so, I’ve seen games like this a lot of times. Sometimes it works for you and sometimes it works against you. You can see how Hyderabad lost a point in injury time last week and tonight, they got a point in injury time… all the teams are professionals and they have the belief to keep going till the end knowing the situation (is attainable),” the Spaniard said.

Cuadrat also elaborated on the closing stages of the match when Hyderabad scored their equaliser. He said, “It was the last moments and they were down to 10 men, so they just went for it and pushed hard. They mixed long balls, second balls, long throw-ins, free-kicks and everything into the box. We know that’s completely normal and expected that, but we couldn’t produce a bigger effort to keep them out.”

When asked what lies ahead for Bengaluru, Cuadrat added, “We have to improve, of course. We have one of our strikers injured. The three Indian front players that I am using now going forward work very hard and are very professional, but they need to improve on their first touch when they arrive in the box as well as their finishing.”

Read the Match Report here.