Watched by their ambassador Rahul Dravid, Bengaluru FC succumb to third ISL loss

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Bengaluru, December 21: Jamshedpur FC arrived in Bengaluru silently, but walked away with three comfortable points, courtesy goalkeeping heroics by Subrata Paul and a spot kick converted by Trindade Matheus Goncalves against the hosts at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium on Thursday (December 21).

It was a battle between the best attackers in the Indian Super League against the best defenders. All Bengaluru FC defenders had to do was stay focused through the 90 minutes and hope their strikers manage to sneak one past JFC goalkeeper Paul.

As it turned out, defender Rahul Bheke let his defences down in the final minute of regulation time to push substitute Sameehg Doutie inside the box. Goncalves sent Bengaluru FC custodian Gurpreet Singh Sandhu the wrong way with a low strike to the right.

It didn't help that moments ago, BFC ambassador Rahul Dravid, a former India cricket captain, backed the team to win the ISL. "We're the favourites, we will win the league," he said during half-time

Bengaluru couldn't even steal one point from the game.

The three points for the visitors though weren't secured with just that event. The 89 minutes before that, the BFC attackers squeezed a performance out of Paul, who has four clean sheets in six games for JFC now.

Paul denied BFC 10 times in those 89 minutes, including a one-on-one situation with Bengaluru skipper Sunil Chhetri.

Wing-back Harmanjot Khabra pierced a lofty through ball in the 76th minute, breaking the Jamshedpur defence down. Chhetri chested it down and moved to the right of the box and fired one into the goal. But Paul got his body in the way of the shot and deflected it for a corner.

It even started that way with Bengaluru piling on the assault from the wings. Venezuelan striker Miku showed some class when he tricked his way around JFC defender Jose Luis Espinosa and crossed to centre. But Sunil Chhetri's header lacked power and was cleared off the line by Shouvik Ghosh.

Paul gloved away another volley from the left by Chhetri just three minutes. It was the result of a brilliant move through the midfield by Edu Garcia, who picked out the BFC skipper after playing the ball above the JFC back-four.

Subrata had to once dive to his right to save a low powerful strike from Garcia, who side-stepped his marker Goncalves early in the second half.

Jamshedpur's 20-year-old winger Jerry Mawihmingthanga could have laid the matter to rest in the 61st minute when Kervens Belfort sent him through. Although he took a good first touch and found the spot he wanted to hit from the right, his effort drifted away from the far post.

The JFC back-four, comprising central defenders Andre Bikey and Espinosa and full-backs Shouvik Ghosh and Souvik Chakrabarti, kept the BFC attackers at bay. With their crosses not finding the right target, BFC's midfielders tried a couple of long-rangers to sneak the ball past Paul.

Midfielder Erik Paartalu, returning to the side in place of Toni Dovale, and Garcia all had their curling efforts easily pocketed by Paul.

A set-piece in the 80th minute, which involved Juanan Gonzalez receiving the ball outside the box and going for a blinder at goal, didn't resolve the matter.

BFC made all their changes - sending Braulio Nobrega and Toni Dovale to join the attack while playing Nishu Kumar as a wing-back - but Subrata's net remain untouched. Nishu was within sight of the goal in the 85th minute, but Miku couldn't tap Nishu's short pass in.

And just like the way they conceded against Chennaiyin FC in their previous game, BFC tripped.

All the risks they took in the game were neutralised with that fall of Bheke. Unfortunately, he fell right on Doutie and referee Ramaswamy Srikrishna pointed to the spot.

"We knew they were strong at the back," BFC coach Albert Roca reflected on the game. "We tried everything, with different systems and took risks. When you take risks to win, sometimes you find that you lose out. It's a shame it was like this. We have to learn about that. We are not so good perhaps to win this game, but we're not bad in the league. We won two games away and then we came here to lose two games in the last minutes. Hard luck, but come on, it's for us to learn."

The Blues next travel to Kochi to take on Kerala Blasters on December 31.