The 18,410-strong crowd inside the Larkin Stadium could scarcely believe their eyes. Their team had been in control, barely getting out of second gear and yet led 1-0 after 55 minutes of the first leg of the Asian Football Confederation Cup 2016 semi-final clash.
Yet, Eugeneson Lyngdoh’s strike from 22 yards had stunned the partisan crowd into silence and had left goalkeeper Izham Tarmizi with no chance. Johor Darul Ta’zim, the home team, had dominated for long stretches of the match, but had only one goal to show for it.
Johor rue their profligacy
Bengaluru FC had done much of the early running and pressing, huffing and puffing the Johor midfield and defence into submission and had started the away tie looking very much like the home team.
The high pressing looked to be working for the first 20 minutes, with the visitors from India creating a string of half-decent chances, but failed to test the opposition keeper as JDT seemed to be taken aback by this gung-ho approach by the Blues.
The away team almost conceded midway through the first half when one half of Johor’s Argentine strike force, Juan Martin Lucero, thought he had scored with a precise header, only to be denied by an excellent point-blank save from Blues keeper Amrinder Singh.
Ten minutes later, Mohammad Azinee somehow contrived to shoot the ball wide after turning a Blues defender inside out and having the goal at his mercy. Lucero forced Amrinder into another save as Bengaluru were praying for half-time to arrive, with the home team getting closer and closer to opening the scoring.
Seven minutes into the second half, Amrinder and Bengaluru’s resistance finally broke as Lucero’s partner, Jorge Pereyra Diaz, headed Safiq Karim’s cross into the goal to give the hosts the lead. The lead lasted only for four minutes after Lyngdoh, who seemed to be going nowhere with the ball, struck it sweetly with his left foot, as the Blues snatched a crucial away goal.
The home team had several opportunities to score as defender John Johnson put his body on the line to protect his side’s slender away-goal advantage heading into the second leg. Johor pressed for a winner but could break through as the visitors held firm to head back to Bengaluru with the upper hand.
Tactical switches and Johor’s Dilemma
Going into the match, it was expected that coach Albert Roca would stick with the team that had served him so well in the previous two matches, but the Spaniard opted to leave teenage left-back Nishu Kumar out of the squad, drafting in Salam Ranjan Singh instead.
The move had mixed results, with Ranjan flying into some rash tackles and earning himself a yellow card but making some important blocks as well. Rino Anto was shifted to the left flank in order to accommodate the 3-5-2 formation deployed by Roca and struggled to replicate his trademark lung-bursting runs down the wing.
Roca agreed at the post-match conference that his team had struggled a bit, but commended his boys for not letting in more goals, “We knew that [Johor Darul Ta'zim] have very good strikers and we have reinforced our defence to not let them be comfortable during the game. A few individual mistakes allowed them to take control of the game and score. But we did it. At half time, we adjusted a little bit and I think we did quite well and came out with the result we deserved.”
Of the front three, only skipper Sunil Chhetri acquitted himself well as CK Vineeth and Alwyn George appeared to be a little out of their depth, as they were shackled by the Johor defenders; the latter looking very tired before being substituted for Vishal Kumar.
The defending champions’ frustration at not scoring another goal will be further compounded by the fact that the attacking trio of Diaz, Lucero and substitute Amri Yahyah are ruled out of the return leg, having picked up their second yellow cards in the knockout stage, in an ill-tempered affair.
This will force Johor coach Mario Gomez to make changes to his starting line-up as the loss of the twin Argentine threats may be the biggest positive for Bengaluru FC besides the all-important away goal. It is impossible to understate the significance of this development as not only are Diaz and Lucero numbers one and two in the Malaysian Super League scoring charts this season, but they also have scored more than 50 goals among themselves in this calendar year.
Bengaluru will not underestimate the Johor threat in the second leg of the tie, as Roca said, “We are playing against 11 players in the second leg as well. I will not be thinking too much about their suspended players. Their substitutes will see it as an opportunity to perform well and get their team to the final. It’s not going to be easy. We’ll have to fight even more than we did today, if we are to make the final.”
Overall, it was a satisfactory evening’s work for the Steelmen away in Malaysia as they prepare for the first home game of the season in front of their fan base at the fortress – Sree Kanteerava Stadium.
Coach Roca will have to do a fine balancing act as he will know that a Johor away goal is likely to set the cat among the pigeons but at the same time, Bengaluru will look to score in order to seal the tie. For now, the enormity of the result was not lost on anybody.
The second leg on October 19 promises to be a belter as Bengaluru are 90 minutes away from becoming the first Indian side ever to reach the AFC Cup final.
History beckons, as the visitors will come flying out of the blocks in an attempt to try and defend their title, but Bengaluru FC have defied the odds to make it this far, and a place in the final is suddenly more visible than ever.
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