Gameweek 16 of the Hero I-League saw Bengaluru FC and East Bengal close the gap with league leaders Mohun Bagan, while Royal Wahingdoh missed out on the opportunity to temporarily lead the table. Mohun Bagan remain in top spot despite not being in action this week while Royal Wahingdoh maintained their second place despite the loss. Bengaluru FC and East Bengal occupy the third and fourth spots respectively while Pune FC slipped down to fifth.Dempo SC and Royal Wahingdoh played out a thriller at Goa's Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium. The home side came out on top eventually with a hard fought 3-2 win, thanks to a late brace by Tolgay Özbey (FC Goa). Dempo opened the scoring through Sushil Kumar Singh (Mumbai City FC) in the 26th minute. Loveday Enyinaa drew the away side level just before half-time. Özbey, who came in as a substitute, gave the Goan side the lead back in the 82nd minute only to see it getting cancelled out three minutes later by Densill Theobald. The Australian footballer, however, won the game in the dying minutes when he found the net with a deflected shot.East Bengal came out with a 1-0 win against Salgaocar FC at the Salt Lake Stadium, Kolkata. Ranti Martins (FC Goa) scored the solitary goal of the match in the 55th minute from a peach of a cross off Robert Lalthlamuana (Delhi Dynamos).Sporting Clube de Goa and Mumbai FC played out a 1-1 draw at Fatorda, Goa. An Alber Gonsalves header and a Clement Joseph own goal settled the affair.Bengaluru FC downed Pune FC 2-0 at the Balewadi Stadium, Pune, to move up to the third spot in the table. Shankar Sampingiraj opened the scoring just one minute into the game and CK Vineeth scored the second for the reigning champions in the 44th minute.
