Kolkata: A 10-man Mohammedan Sporting’s late fight, embellished with Mahitosh Roy’s stoppage-time stunner, was not enough as Bengaluru FC edged past them 3-2 at the Salt Lake Stadium here on Tuesday to become the first team to qualify for quarterfinals of the ongoing Durand Cup.
The city side played the final 10 minutes of the contest without their goalkeeper Subhajit Bhattacharjee, who was shown a straight red-card by referee Venkatesh R for a foul on Pereyra Diaz outside his box.
BFC ended their Group B campaign with a perfect record. Playing the tournament with their all-Indian reserve side, Mohammedan Sporting’s hopes for qualifying are as good as over having managed just 1 point in 2 matches.
A header from Aleksandar Jovanovic (7th minute) and Dipu Halder’s own goal in the 22nd minute gave Bengaluru a handy 2-0 lead in the first half.
The lead was swelled when Vinith Venkatesh made it 3-0 with a beautiful left-footed curler on the hour mark.
Mohammedan Sporting under Hakim Ssengendo then added a twist to the tale in the 77th minute, with Israfil Dewan’s glancing header off Ashley Koli’s cross beating Lalthuammawia Ralte — who substituted Gurpreet Singh Sandhu under the BFC bar — all ends up.
Md Sporting soon lost their goalkeeper for the needless foul and defender Dipu Halder, who took his place under the bar, came up with a diving save of substitute Sunil Chhetri’s resultant freekick.
Despite the disadvantage, the local side refused to give up and Mahitosh made it 2-3 scoring an absolute stunner from 40 yards out.
But it was too little and too late for them as BFC held on to their lead to make it three wins in as many matches.
In a Group E clash in Kokrajhar, Bodoland FC stunned Odisha FC 2-0.
Wednesday’s matches: Indian Army vs Assam Rifles (4pm); East Bengal FC vs Downtown Heroes (7pm). Live on Sony network.