Bengaluru vs Odisha: Preview and Prediction
The moment which the entire Indian football fraternity was waiting for over the course of the last month is finally here as we are only left with two surviving combatants in the 2023 Super Cup.
The inaugural Super Cup winners Bengaluru will be up against the Odisha side which is going to feature the club history’s first major final. EMS Stadium of Kozhikode City will be the venue of this forthcoming final battle of the third edition between two ISL outfits this Tuesday.
The Karnataka-based club is set to play their third final of the 2022-23 Indian top-flight season after winning the Durand Cup competition and settling with the runners-up title in the recently concluded ISL campaign. The English gaffer Simon Grayson and his Blues are gearing up to replicate their prowess of 2018 when they created history by clinching the inaugural Super Cup title.
The celebrations have erupted in the state of Odisha as their Kalinga Warriors have a golden opportunity up front to earn the first silverware for the club. Meanwhile, it is none other than the Goa-born gaffer Clifford Miranda who has guided the Eastern Dragons into their historic campaign and is on verge of becoming the first-ever Indian head coach to lift this trophy.
Current Form
The reigning Durand Cup champions who barged into the penultimate stages after clearing the group of death convincingly brought the Invincible run of Jamshedpur to an end. Red Miners from the Steel City held BFC even in the first half however, two second-half strikes from Jayesh Rane (67′) and the legendary Sunil Chhetri (84′) paved the way for the Blues.
Nandhakumar Sekar stepped up for the Juggernauts when they needed him the most
The Juggernauts protected their unbeaten record from the northeastern invaders in the ongoing Super Cup edition by outclassing Highlanders in the semi-final encounter on Saturday. Nandhakumar Sekar emerged as the hero of the match for scoring the equalizer (10′) and leading goal (63′) while an 85th-minute strike from Diego Mauricio sealed the final berth for Odisha.
Head-to-Head Record
There have been nine chapters of this rivalry between these two combatants across all competitions in Indian top-flight football. Bengaluru is currently leading the head-to-head record by emerging victorious in six of the nine encounters while the Kalinga Warriors have only managed to register two wins to date.
Both of them kick-started their 2022-23 campaign with the participation in Asia’s oldest existing football tournament Durand Cup where the Blues knocked out their eastern counterparts. Grayson’s men handed a 2-1 defeat to the Group D toppers in a nail-biting quarter-final contest at Salt Lake Stadium where all three goals were scored in the added extra time.
The most recent face-off took place at Sree Kanteerava Stadium on matchday 14 of the 2022-23 Indian Super League season where Bengaluru registered a thumping 3-1 triumph. Rohit Kumar (25′), Roy Krishna (28′), and Pablo Perez (90+2′) graced the scoresheet to avenge their earlier defeat in the same edition.
Team News
Sivasakthi Narayanan might be included in the Bengaluru starting XI
Simon Grayson’s decision of naming an unchanged lineup for the semi-final clash generated a huge buzz as the Blues’ new attacking sensation Sivashakthi Narayanan was still left out on the bench.
Siva assisted the opening goal against Jamshedpur while the man who netted that strike Jayesh Rane was also called onto the battlefield from the substitute bench. The young Sikkimese defender Namgyal Bhutia has kept the first-choice option Prabir Das on the sidelines throughout the tournament and is likely to don the right-back role for the doomsday as well.
Clifford Miranda named an unchanged lineup for the semi-final battle with the Highlanders and ended up sustaining the triumphant run. The Eastern Dragons are expected to once again field the same starting eleven along with a 3-4-3 formation with an ultimate aim to carry forward the same momentum.
Predicted Starting XIs
Bengaluru (4-3-3): Gurpreet Singh Sandhu; Namgyal Bhutia, Sandesh Jhingan, Bruno Ramires, Naorem Roshan Singh; Suresh Singh Wangjam, Rohit Kumar, Javi Hernandez; Sunil Chhetri ©, Roy Krishna, Sivashakthi Narayanan
Odisha (3-4-3): Amrinder Singh; Narender Gehlot, Carlos Delgado, Osama Malik; Jerry Mawihmingthanga, Thoiba Singh, Princeton Rebello, Sahil Panwar; Nandhakumar Sekar, Diego Mauricio ©, Victor Rodriguez
Prediction
Bengaluru who are going to feature in the third consecutive final of the 2022-23 season will be undoubtedly turning up as favorites for this encounter. They displayed a balanced approach throughout the Super Cup campaign leaving out no room for the opposition to stage a counter-attack.
Meanwhile, Odisha is considered underdogs for the silverware and will be leaving no stone unturned to avenge their quarter-final exit from Durand Cup and turn it into a historic night for the Juggernauts.
