Bengaluru FC overcame Jamshedpur FC at the EMS Corporation Stadium on Friday to advance to the Super Cup 2023 final thanks to two goals in the second half from Jayesh Rana and Sunil Chhetri.
With the victory, Bengaluru advanced to its third season final; they had previously played in the Durand Cup and ISL finals. Bengaluru FC will compete against the victors of Saturday’s second penultimate round match between Odisha FC and NorthEast United FC in the final, which will be held on Tuesday at the same location.
The two teams played excellent passing football and produced an end-to-end contest on Friday night. Jamshedpur displayed more flare in its attacks in the opening period of the game and nearly scored several times.
Daniel Chima Chukwu made a shot from outside the area at the opposing goal in the third minute. Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, the Bengaluru custodian, had to push himself to the limit to make a save. When Jay Emmanuel-Thomas attempted to score off the rebound, he was also quick enough to save his team.
Ritwik Das, too, played a role in initiating attacks for Jamshedpur from the left, using his pace and creating some dangerous moves in the final third as Jamshedpur took control of the game. In the 17th minute, Thomas came close to putting the ball over the line following a penetrating run through the heart of the Bengaluru defence. But his final effort from close range was blocked by Gurpreet once again.
On the other hand, Udanta Singh led the counter-attacking moves for Simon Grayson’s team. Overall, in the first half, Bengaluru FC registered no shots on target as opposed to Jamshedpur’s three.
The Indian Super League 2022–23 finalists came up reinvigorated after the breather. A few tactical substitutions also turned out to be impactful as they inched closer towards the Jamshedpur goal. Finally, in the 67th minute, Jayesh Rane put them in the lead with a brilliantly placed header into the bottom right corner. Much credit for the goal goes to youngster N. Sivasakthi, who dribbled past a defender and delivered a dipping lob into the box from the right, which reached Rane off the head of a defender.
Having taken the lead, Bengaluru found its rhythm and looked hungry for more goals. Within five minutes of the first goal, Roy Krishna broke through when he capitalised on an error committed by Jamshedpur’s defence and had only goalkeeper TP Rehenesh to beat. However, the goalkeeper could read the Fijian striker’s move and denied him a goal.
By this time, Bengaluru saw themselves in the driver’s seat and looked like a far better team than they were in the first session. On the other hand, Jamshedpur kept chasing the ball in search of an equaliser.
In the 84th minute, Sunil Chhetri doubled Bengaluru’s lead and virtually put the game to bed. Krishna once again saw himself coming up against Rehenesh, and the latter did amazingly well to stave off his effort. But Krishna went on to head the rebound towards Chhetri, and the skipper made no mistake in slotting it home.