Durand Cup 2023: Bengaluru FC, Kerala Blasters face in Southern Derby

Both Bengaluru FC and Kerala Blasters failed to win their first Durand Cup 2023 games.

The double-headers on matchday 15 of the 132nd IndianOil Durand Cup on Friday (August 18, 2023), will see Delhi FC take on Group E toppers Chennaiyin FC (CFC) at the Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium in Guwahati, before two crack Indian Super League (ISL) sides Kerala Blasters and defending champions Bengaluru FC (BFC) face-off in a must-win Southern Derby at Kolkata’s Kishore Bharati Krirangan (KBK).

The Guwahati game kicks-off at 3.00pm Indian Standard Time (IST) while the Kolkata game has a 6.00pm IST kick-off scheduled.

Under normal circumstances, this would be a high-voltage Southern Derby. BFC, the defending champions have drawn their first game while the Kerala Blasters went down in a Kerala derby clash with Gokulam in their opener. As a result both need to win their second games to keep hopes of qualifying alive.

However, given the champions have fielded a young side, the scales seem to be tipped in favour of the Manjappadas, particularly if the form both teams have shown in their opening games hold.

The Blasters came second-best in a seven-goal slugfest with the 2019 champions Gokulam, but their key players like Urugyuan Adrian Luna, wing-back Prabir Das and midfielder Jeakson Singh looked sharp. Particularly impressive was their young attacking winger Mohammed Aimen.

Bengaluru on the other hand also had some encouraging performances from some of their youngsters. Bekey Oram and Harsh Patre in midfield were particularly impressive. Salam Johnson Singh will also feel good having got on the board and if someone like a Robin Yadav can get his free-kicks on target as he did in the Santosh Trophy, we can have a very exciting game of football in our hands.

Bibiano Fernandes, the BFC coach made some key points in a pre-match chat when he observed, “There were positives to take from our last match, and definitely a lot of things we need to improve on. The game against Kerala will pit us against a really good team, and all the boys are looking forward to the challenge. The aim is to put our best foot forward and be able to make the right decisions on the pitch.”

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