Bengaluru U15’s Held By Kerala’s MSP Football Academy; U18’s Draw Ozone FC
Nagoa: Bengaluru FC Under-15s were held to a 1-1 draw in their opening game of the Nike Premier Cup (U15 Y-League Final Phase) by Kerala’s MSP Football Academy at the Nagoa Panchayat Ground in Goa, on Monday.
Meanwhile in Vidyanagar, Bengaluru FC Under-18s too suffered a similar fate drawing 1-1 against Ozone FC in a fifth round U18 Youth League encounter at the BFC Academy Ground in an afternoon kick off.
The first game of the day in Nagoa saw the Blue Colts completely dominate the proceedings against their opponents from Kerala. However, a goalkeeping error from Dipesh Chauhan handed MSP FA the lead in the first half after the custodian failed to deal with a long range shot from Ajay Krishnan (9’). Damaitphang Lyngdoh (68’) restored parity for Bengaluru in the second half but the youngsters couldn’t convert their dominance into a win, with the game ending 1-1.
The Blue Colts stay second in the table with FC Goa and SAI Guwahati too playing out a draw in the other Group-A game.
It was a similar story in the second game of the day, where the Blue Colts had to fight back from an early Manvir Singh (7’) strike to equalize in the dying minutes of the game. Biswa Kr. Darjee managed to level scores in the 88th minute helping Blue Colts draw the game 1-1 and maintain their unbeaten run in the competition.
The result took Bengaluru’s tally to 13 points from five games, as they stay two points ahead of Ozone FC who have played a game more in the Chennai-Karnataka Zone.