Bengaluru FC has officially begun their 2021 campaign of the Durand Cup with a 2-0 victory over their long time rivals Kerala Blasters FC in their opening game of Group C. Kerala Blasters have already played a game before the BFC clash with a win against the Indian Navy. Namgyal Bhutia’s in the 45th minute opened the scoring account for the Blues to break the deadlock while Leon Augustine sealed the victory in the 71st minute of the second half.
𝐀 𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐂𝐇 𝐖𝐄𝐋𝐋 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐇𝐓‼️🔥
A very intense match coming to an end at 2️⃣-0️⃣
Bengaluru FC vs Kerala Blasters FC#DurandCup2021 #130thEdition #Legacy #Kolkata #football #soccer #fifa #aiff #cherrytree #bfc #kbfc #yennumyellow #manjappada #WeAreBFC #BFCKBFC pic.twitter.com/dT4dZjEH4N
— Durand Cup (@thedurandcup) September 15, 2021
BFC’s coach Naushad Moosa handed out multiple debuts in the game to Biswa Darjee, Wungngayam Muirang and the BFC B graduate Akashdeep Singh along with Ajith Kumar who led the Blues go marching in. The former I-league champions started the game on their toes to catch the defence of the Blasters on their heals to register their first shot in the opening five minutes of the game as Akashdeep skipped past the marker to pick out Sivasakthi Narayanan whose effort was easily welcomed into the hands of the goalkeeper Albino Gomes.
On the stroke of halftime, Akashdeep was brought down outside the box for Bhutia to curl one in past the keepers reach to put the Blue up by a goal. The second half saw the 22-year-old Leon Augustine who was brought on for Akashdeep. Just past the hour mark RV Hormipam of Kerala Blasters entered the referee’s books for the second time in the game to earn a red card. BFC was quick to pounce on the 10-men Blasters to find the back of the net in the 71st minute courtesy of the substitute Augustine.
The game soon got ugly as the continuous charge upfield with the men in blue drove the men in yellow making reckless challenges to bring a halt to the advance. Many such challenges earned the Blasters many warning cards that eventually led to them being penalised with two more sending offs to bring them down to just 8-men. Bengaluru kept possession and saw off the win to go top of the table in Group C after one game.
