Former champions Bengaluru FC posted a comfortable 3-0 victory over I-League outfit Inter Kashi in Group B of the Durand Cup played here at the Kishore Bharati Krirangan (KBK). The goals were scored by their Spanish recruits Edgar Mendez and Alberto Noguera Ripoll, with the final strike coming from their talisman Sunil Chhetri.

The Blues after their opening four-goal win against the Indian Navy thus maintained a 100% record while Inter Kashi, who drew their first game against Mohammedan Sporting, will look to win big in their final group game to harbor hopes of going through.

Gerard Zaragoza made a couple of changes to his starting 11 and one of them Mendez, paid dividends in the first half itself with a calm composed penalty, wrong-footing Subham Dhas in the Kashi goal. Talisman Sunil Chhetri again started from the bench but was brought on again, this time in the second half. Izumi Arata, the Kashi gaffer trusted the same 11 however, which won the point against Mohammedan Sporting in their first game.

The Pilgrims could not get a shot at goal in the first-half as the Blues took control of possession and most of the attacking forays. Inter Kashi’s defence however did well to thwart most of their efforts at goal till Panicker’s discretion in bringing the ball down with his chest inside the box cost them dearly. The referee pointed to the spot and Mendez broke the deadlock.

After the break, Zaragoza introduced all his big guns including Jorge Peryra Diaz and Ryan Williams, besides Chhetri as already mentioned and the Blues' intensity went up instantly. Chhetri had two chances to score within minutes of coming on.

They had to eventually wait till the 77th minute for the second as Ripoll, who had been having a brilliant game in midfield, finished a move he himself initiated. He found Chhetri making a run inside the box on the right who crossed for Peryra Diaz to back-heel to Ripoll who had come in following the move. The Spanish midfielder made no mistake with the right-footed finish past Dhas.

Soon the third came when Chhetri nonchalantly came rushing in to the near post off a corner and leaped to direct his header down perfectly, beating Dhas yet again. It could have been worse for Inter Kashi but Ryan Williams missed a penalty when Anand Usuda brought him down inside the box.

Odisha FC make strong start

Odisha FC (OFC) started their campaign in the Durand Cup, with a dominant 5-0 victory over BSF Football Team (BSF FT) in a Group E encounter played at the SAI Stadium. Moirangthem Givson Singh’s double and Rahul Mukhi, Ashangbam Aphaoba Singh and Roshan Panna’s strikes in the second half ,gave a comfortable victory to Odisha, as they went on top of the group standings over North East United FC on goal difference. 

Odisha FC head coach Amit Rana named a young line up which has players from the reserves side as well as several experienced talents with players like Lalliansanga Renthlei, Givson Singh, Aphaoba Singh, Subham Bhattacharya and Narendra Naik. BSF Football Team Head Coach Gurjit Singh Atwal named an experienced starting line up with Mohammed Aasif leading the defence line.

Odisha began with quick attacks but both teams were holding a steady pace in their efforts to move up the field. Considering Odisha have fielded their second team, it can't be denied that they were playing somewhat better than BSFFT. 

The first real chance came in the way of BSFFT with a free-kick 30m away and it fell at the feet of a BSFFT player standing at the fat post completely unmarked who surprisingly passed the ball behind rather than directing it inside the net and the chance was wasted. Odisha did not waste any time and moved up the field and took another shot from the edge of the box which was easily collected by the goalkeeper before BSFFT did the same and their shot was collected by Odisha goal keeper Niraj Kumar within a minute from the attack on the other side of the field. 

Odisha FC were dominating the game with another golden chance where a flying ball inside the opposition box from the right flank went a bit too far away from the player positioning cleverly in the middle. They earned a free-kick that was also taken well but BSFFT goal keeper Harpreet Singh did well to clear by punching it away. 

In the last quarter of the first half BSFFT were getting into dangerous positions and that too unmarked. On the other hand, Odisha were doing the best and waiting like a fox, as soon as opponent make a mistake, the Juggernauts were ready to take opportunity other than the times they were building up from midfield. However, before the referee blew the final whistle for half time Odisha got their best chance in the game. The ball destined to go inside from a very close place was intercepted and cleared well by BSFFT who did not waste any time and went on the counter-attack soon and came close even but made the mistake of standing at an offside position.

The Juugernauts begun the second half match where they left off with quick attacks but BSFFT also picked up their pace and it did not take them long to get into dangerous positions near the Odisha box. But expectedly, Odisha manage to get the lead with three BSFFT defenders trying to stop three Odisha players but young promising forward Rahul Mukhi kept running, beat them in the run and took the lead for the Kalinga Warriors. 

In the first ten minutes into the second half of the match, it was all Odisha while Aphaoba from the left side of the field made a beautiful run. No one marked him and even tried to stop him who curled it beautifully into the net and made it 2-0 for Odisha. Two goals in two minutes from Odisha and the whole stadium was spellbound. The goal came from a beautiful partnership between last goal scorer Aphaoba and this goalscorer Givson Singh waited perfectly in the middle of the attack. Aphaoba passed him from the left and BSFFT defenders gave Givson all the time in the world to shoot it and the goal keeper could do absolutely nothing.

After conceding three goals in the span of eight minutes, BSFFT seemed to be rattled in a way. They were making some headway into the opponent box previously which had completely gone and it was entirely the Kalinga Warriors who could have scored at 2 more goals. 

In the 79’ minute BSFFT managed to get a dangerous shot in but it missed the net by inches. However, Odisha were quick to go on the counter-attack and earned a corner in the process, took a shot, the pass ultimately fell at the feet of Roshan Panna assisted by Givson Singh who didn’t fail to score. But it was another goal in another two minutes and Givson Singh got his brace, positioned himself perfectly in the middle, got the pass from the left and put it perfectly at the back of the net. 

The Kalinga Warriors saw off the rest of the game without much trouble to seal all three points.