Bengaluru FC edged out Mohun Bagan 2-0 at the Barabati Stadium in Cuttack as they won the Federation Cup for a second time, their first title after their maiden title in 2015. This also meant Bengaluru now qualify for next season’s AFC Cup.
Albert Roca named a starting XI that had Len Doungel rewarded with a start for consistently strong performances against Bagan in the group stages and the AFC Cup fixture. With no Cameron Watson, Lenny Rodrigues joined Alwyn George and Eugeneson Lyngdoh in the midfield. Sunil Chhetri, injured earlier in the tournament
With Mohun Bagan fielding a full-strength eleven, Sanjoy Sen had Sony Norde, Balwant Singh and Darryl Duffy line up as a front three. Bagan had the edge in this season’s five previous encounters, registering two wins to Bengaluru’s one.
The Blues started the game in a positive fashion as Roca’s side thought they had their lead in the 19th minute when Udanta Singh volleyed home Lyngdoh’s take in stunning fashion only for the assistant referee to disallow the goal after Doungel, in an off-side position, seemed to have got a bit of leg on the ball on its way in. There was another chance just moments later when Udanta tried to cheekily flick in Lenny’s low cross but Debjit Majumder got enough of a hand to push it out for a corner.
Bagan almost took the lead against the run of play as Sandesh Jhingan did well to make a goal line clearance from a Katsumi Yusa shot in the 31st minute in what would be Bagan’s only real chance in the first period.
Juanan Gonzalez then nodded in a goal only to see him ruled offside. John Johnson headed a free kick from Udanta across the face of the goal and the Blues’ Spanish defender may have been onside as replays seemed to confirm that the referee may have got this decision wrong.
Things soon got frenetic at both ends. Amrinder Singh pulled off a good save, getting his fingertips on a goal-bound rasping strike from Balwant Singh. Bengaluru soon answered with a counter. Set up by Harmanjot Khabra, Udanta spotted Majumder charging off his line and lobbed to ’keeper only to see the ball bounce wide.
Udanta then pulled a muscle, forcing Roca to bring on the eventual matchwinner Ck Vineeth. Bagan then had a flurry of corners in added time of the second half but the Bengaluru defence did enough to take the game to extra time.
Former Bagan man Cornell Glen saw his chip from a tight angle bounce off the frame with no Bengaluru body to tap home the rebound as Bagan survived by the width of a post.
Vineeth had other ideas as the frontman cut in from the left side and his shot took a huge deflection off a Bagan defender to leave Debjit stranded and give Bengaluru the lead in the 107th minute.
It was that man Vineeth again as he finished Bagan off as he shot from outside the box with Bagan’s defenders backing off. Debjit got a hand to it but could not save it as Bengaluru clinched their second Federation Cup title with two minutes to go.
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