It was a season-opener to neglect for the previous champions Bengaluru FC who suffered a 1-2 defeat to Kerala Blasters FC within the Indian Super League in Kochi on Thursday.
Two defensive errors from Bengaluru (Veendorp OG 52’, Luna 70’) are what consigned Simon Grayson’s males to defeat.
New signing Curtis Main, who was a second-half substitute, scored a late purpose (90’), however the Blues couldn’t stage the comeback they wanted.
The Blasters kicked off proceedings with Bengaluru fielding as many as 4 debutants of their eleven.
Slavko Damjanovic, Jessel Carneiro, Keziah Veendorp and Ryan Williams obtained their first aggressive minutes in a BFC shirt.
Gurpreet Singh Sandhu led Bengaluru out within the absence of Sunil Chhetri, who’s away on nationwide responsibility on the Asian Games.
The Blues’ closest likelihood got here within the thirty fifth minute, when Naorem Roshan Singh’s long-distance effort caught Sachin Suresh off guard.
But the Kerala goalkeeper managed to parry it away for a nook, as each groups walked down the tunnel at halftime with no objectives to indicate for.
The begin of the second half noticed the momentum shift again Kerala’s approach.
Peprah got here near scoring within the 52nd minute however Gurpreet managed to fist the ball out.
It was from the ensuing nook that the hosts discovered the lead, with the ball coming off Veendorp’s head and previous Gurpreet.
Grayson turned to his bench within the sixty fifth minute to try to change issues as Curtis Main, Javi Hernandez and Parag Shrivas got here on for Aleksandar Jovanovic, Keziah Veendorp and Namgyal Bhutia.
Just when Bengaluru seemed to brush away the setback, one other error in defence — this time from Gurpreet — gifted Kerala their second purpose of the night time.
Picking up a go from Damjanovic, the Bengaluru goalkeeper obtained a heavier contact to the ball than he would have appreciated. An onrushing Luna obtained to the ball in a flash, earlier than rolling it into an empty internet and making it 2-0.
Monirul Molla and Harsh Patre got here on for Sivasakthi Narayanan and Rohit Kumar within the 77th minute of the sport as Bengaluru seemed to discover a approach again.
Main ate into Kerala’s lead late into the sport with a easy end, sparking some hope of a revival.
The fourth official added on seven minutes as Bengaluru continued their seek for an equaliser, nevertheless it wasn’t to be for the Blues who now journey to Kolkata the place they play Mohun Bagan Super Giant on Wednesday.
Source web site: www.hindustantimes.com
