Bartholomew Ogbeche scores the winner as Hyderabad skims past Bengaluru
Bartholomew Ogbeche’s early goal in the seventh minute handed Hyderabad a 1-0 win against Bengaluru in the 2021-22 Indian Super League season.
Hyderabad head coach Manolo Marquez handed Rohit Danu, Nikhil Poojary, Souvik Chakrabarti, and Javier Siveiro their first ISL starts of the season as Hitesh Sharma, Mohammed Yasir, Aniket Jadhav, and Joel Chianese made way for the incoming quartet.
On the other hand, Bengaluru head coach Marco Pezzaiuoli fielded only three overseas players as Edmund Lalrindika replaced the unavailable Prince Ibara in the starting XI.
The Nizams started the first half on a strong note and snuffed the danger away as early as in the first 20 seconds. In the 7th minute, Akash Mishra stole the ball from Bengaluru in the midfield and found Bartholomew Ogbeche in front of the Bengaluru defense the Blues couldn’t snuff the danger out this time around. The Nigerian striker’s shot took a wild deflection off Pratik Chaudhari’s boot and rolled into the bottom right corner of the Bengaluru goal.
Mishra continued to play the key role of moving the ball forward for Hyderabad throughout the match as the youngster almost played out a perfect through ball to set up Ogbeche for a potential second goal but Gurpreet Singh Sandhu came off his line and collected the ball in the 17th minute.
The Bengaluru defense was in sixes and sevens throughout the first half as Hyderabad found more opportunities to score more goals. Ogbeche found Siveiro with a long ball to crack open the Bengaluru backline. However, the Spanish forward failed to control the ball as his shot was flashed over the target in the 31st minute.
The only occasion Bengaluru came close to scoring in the first half was when Sunil Chhetri headed wide off a Cleiton Silva delivery from a set-piece situation from outside the Hyderabad box as the hosts went into the break with a crucial 1-0 lead.
Cleiton Silva missed several opportunities to score for Bengaluru in the second-half
Bengaluru took to the field with renewed energy in the second half as the Blues eked out numerous opportunities to score throughout the second 45 minutes in the game but to no avail. Silva attempted to chip the ball over Kattimani at the Hyderabad goal but the veteran goalkeeper made a timely save to keep the scoreline at 1-0 in the 47th minute.
Silva had a shot at goal saved yet again by Kattimani in the 56th minute when Bruno Ramires found the Brazilian unmarked in the box. The Bengaluru star forward had a plethora of chances at goal to score the equalizer but never managed to be clinical enough.
Silva was played through on goal by a defense splitting ball by Danish Farooq in the 61st minute but the Brazilian did not manage to hit the target from a favorable position inside the box. Hyderabad was struggling to match the pace and intensity of the Blues in the second half and it was evident from the regular Bengaluru chances at the Hyderabad goal.
Bengaluru clamped down on Hyderabad with a counter-attacking move two minutes later as the Nizams were on a high line of defense. It was Silva yet again in the thick of things as he went for goal from distance and his shot took a deflection off Mishra before Kattimani’s resounding save.
Hyderabad eventually managed to soak in all the Bengaluru pressure as they grew into confidence in the second half and did not allow any more attacks from the opposition. The Blues had one final chance to score from a Silva cross inside the box but Kattimani parried it away to safety in the additional time as Marquez’s side scraped a hard-fought 1-0 win.
Hyderabad moves to third place in the league standings courtesy of the slender 1-0 win as they have collected 7 points from 4 fixtures while Bengaluru is now ninth in the league with just 4 points in the bag from 5 matches.
The Nizams play against NorthEast United on Monday while Bengaluru plays Goa on Saturday in the late kick-off.