Bengaluru FC look for first trophy of the season against East Bengal
20 April 2018 4:32 AM IST
Bhubaneswar: As the inaugural Hero Super Cup comes to its end, only two teams remain. In a battle of ISL vs I-League, Bengaluru FC (BFC), who beat Mohun Bagan in the semi-final, will face the latter's biggest rivals, East Bengal who overcame FC Goa in the first semi-final.
The two sides have faced off against each other on eight occasions, with East Bengal winning five. But Bengaluru FC's game has gone up since the last time the two met.
Bengaluru FC, widely regarded as the best football club in the country, were faced with disappointment when they lost the Indian Super League finals earlier this year.
East Bengal, who finished fourth in the I-League, will be looking to pick up their first piece of major silverware in six years. Their last trophy was the Federation Cup (now defunct) in 2012. BFC has had an eventful route to the final. In the round of 16, they beat Gokhulam Kerala 2-1 after being 1-0 down. Udanta Singh scored the winner in the second minute of stoppage time. In the quarter-finals, they faced NEROCA FC and won convincingly after Sunil Chhetri netted the tournament's first hat-trick to win 3-1. In the semi-finals against Mohun Bagan, Bengaluru found themselves in trouble after going down 1-0 and then losing their left-back Nishu Kumar to a red card in the 50th minute. The ISL runners-up rallied to win 4-2 on the back of a fantastic hat-trick by Venezuelan striker Miku.
East Bengal had a much more defence-oriented route to the finals. They first beat Mumbai City FC 2-1 after coming from behind. In the last 8, they beat Aizawl FC in a cagey affair that ended in the 6th minute of stoppage time after Laldanmawia Ralte scored a penalty to win 1-0. In the semi-finals against FC Goa, Dudu Omagbemi scored the only goal of the game in the 78th minute to put East Bengal through to the finals.
Bengaluru FC comes into the game as the strong favourite as they have been in imperious form since the end of January, having only lost 1 game in their last 21, which includes 17 wins.
This is mainly due to their deadly front trio of Sunil Chhetri, Miku and Udanta Singh. Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, who is playing against former employers, has also been in good form for BFC between the sticks.
Chhetri and Miku have been having their own little competition to see who ends up as the club's leading scorer for the season.
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