Bengaluru FC, on Sunday, ensured their progress to the Group Stages of the 2021 AFC Cup with a 1-0 win over Club Eagles at the National Sta...
Bengaluru FC, on Sunday, ensured their progress to the Group Stages of the 2021 AFC Cup with a 1-0 win over Club Eagles at the National Stadium, in Male.
Jayesh Rane’s first-half strike proved to be the difference between the two sides, as Marco Pezzaiuoli’s side joined ATK Mohun Bagan, Maziya S&RC and Bashundhara Kings in Group D.
Pezzaiuoli handed full debuts to Alan Costa, Sarthak Golui, Jayesh and Rohit Kumar, with two other new signings, Danish Farooq and Bidyashagar Singh, named among the substitutes alongside B-team graduate Sivasakthi Narayanan. His counterpart Mohamed Shaazly was forced into a late change to his starting eleven, with Easa Ismail replacing Ali Ashfaq.
Club Eagles had the ball in the back of the net in the 17th minute, but Sarthak Golui had stepped up at the right moment to catch Easa offside.
The Blues then broke the deadlock in the 25th minute through debutant Jayesh. Eagles failed to clear Sarthak’s long throw from the left and the ball fell to Jayesh, who placed his shot into the bottom corner through Haisham Hassan’s legs to put BFC 1-0 up.
Gurpreet Singh Sandhu was called into action a minute before half time. From an Eagles corner, the ball took a deflection off Sarthak and was...
