Roy Krishna winner in extra-time sends Bengaluru FC to Durand Cup semis

Sivasakthi scored the other goal for The Blues, while Diego Mauricio netted for Odisha FC.

A goal with the last touch of the game by Roy Krishna and a strike from N. Sivasakthi- his fourth of the tournament, saw Bengaluru FC (BFC) pull off a 2-1 victory over a 10-man Odisha FC (OFC) in the second quarter-final of Durand Cup 2022, played here at the Kishore Bharati Krirangan (KBK) on Saturday evening.

Diego Mauricio got the equalizing goal for the Juggernauts. The Blues thus become the second team after local giants Mohammedan SC to make it to the semi-finals and have now made it to the last four stages in all their four appearances in Asia’s oldest football tournament.

What transpired during the 30-minutes of extra time could not be predicted during what turned out to be a scrappy and ill-tempered 90-minutes of regulation time, which ended goalless. As many as eight yellow cards were shown in that time and Shubham Sarangi of OFC got the marching orders in the 85th minute for a second bookable offence. Credit must be given to Odisha FC in the way they fought for close to 40 minutes after that incident.

There were about two chances of note in the first half and both fell to Odisha FC. Diego Mauricio broke free in the eighth minute, but his shot from close to the keeper went well wide off target. Three minutes later, Nandhakumar in the second attempt, hit straight at Blues keeper Gurpreet Sandhu, who had no problems in stopping that one.

It turned all untidy after that leading to about four yellow cards being shown in the first 45 minutes itself.

The second half was as uninspiring as the first. Blues centre-back Sandesh Jhingan got the first proper scoring chance in the 64th minute, when he rose highest off a Javi free-kick from the left, but missed a proper connection with his head.

The best chance for Bengaluru FC however came in the 76th from a second Javi free-kick from round about the same spot and this time won by substitute Leon Augustine. Jovanovic, their second centre-back, had come up from defence for this one and found himself with a free-header. He did connect too but it lacked direction, unfortunately.

Meanwhile, the young and fresh legs brought on by Bengaluru FC coach Simon Grayson like Leon, Faisal, Udanta and Siva Sakthi were sure to provide dividends in extra time and they did.

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In the very first minute, Roy Krishna sneaked in behind a Parag cross from the left, but could not trap cleanly to take advantage of it.

The Blues finally broke through in the 98th minute. Faisal got hold of the ball on the left flank, dodged one defender and played an intelligent grounded cross to Leon, who was in space inside the box on the near post. He took a touch forward and shot a powerful left-footer towards goal.

Keeper L. Ralte did save it but the rebound fell towards a lurking Sivasakthi who struck a first-time volley home before Odisha FC defender Osama Malik could challenge him. It was a fantastic opportunistic strike by the young striker.

The goal brought the game to life suddenly and to their credit Odisha FC really stepped it up and began to look the better team with 10 men.

Aussie Osama, in the 103rd minute, got a free header but his flick went straight to Gurpreet. Then Pedro Martin just before the end of the first half of extra-time got behind the Bengaluru FC defence wonderfully off a Raynier free-kick, but with only Gurpreet to beat, botched his connection.

The Juggernauts got a deserving equalizer when off a Sahil Panwar free-kick from the left flank, Mauricio rose above his marker Jovanovic to beat Gurpreet with a strong well-placed header.

Just as it looked like the game was headed towards penalties, Ralte made the blunder of putting the ball out of touch with seconds to go for the final whistle. The quickly taken throw-in reached an unmarked Krishna about 25-yards out and the Fijian unleashed a powerful right-footed curler to beat Ralte all ends up.