Sunil scores as Bengaluru earn first victory in AFC Cup beating Ayeyawady 0-1 away from home

BENGALURU FC managed to shake off their back to back defeats in AFC Cup to come back to winning ways against Ayeyawadi United. In a moderately paced, water break-riddled game played in the humid city of Pathein, Sunil Chhetri's rather sketchy left footer goal was enough to earn the Blues a 0-1 win away from home.

Westwood's side started brightly. John Johnson stopped the former Mohun Bagan striker Christopher Chizoba from making an early run into the BFC box. The Federation Cup holders replied with Alwyn George running way up and sending a ball into the bosx that Kim Song-yong tried to head into target but missed.

Bengaluru were on top of their passing and possession game and Ayeyawady wanted to get them on counters, but the their strikers weren't getting much leeway in the final third.

A good chance came for the Blues when Michael Collins sent a great pass to Lalchhuan Mawia who tried to cross it towards Kim Song-yong but made a mess of it. Angered, Collins yelled at Mawia using a few expletives. The referee wasn't having it and he booked Collins. Even head coach Ashley Westwood told Collins off from the touchline, yelling, "You've got f***ing 5 minutes, you'll never play again... is that how you talk to your teammate?" Luckily for Collins, the coach didn't actually substitute him.

The home team got a real chance when they managed to press on and defender Moe Win got a shot on target, but an agile Amrinder Singh made a great diving save to deny him. Moments later Chizoba had another crack at the goal but the finish was poor and Amrinder collected it easily.

The missed opportunities came back to bite Ayeyawady when just after the half hour mark Udanta Singh fought off a couple of defenders to cut in from the left flank and find Sunil Chhetri inside the box with a superb effort. Sunil swung his left foot, trying to finish on the first touch. The effort wasn't good; the timing of the shot was poor and the ball slow-hopped like a frog towards the goal. But the keeper, who was expecting Kim Song-yong - standing in proximity - to attack the ball and hung back at the goal-line, realised his mistake when the ball merrily went along into the goal, making everyone standing in a ten feet radius look stupid. Sunil Chhetri was apologizing to Udanta Singh for the poor touch, but the goal still counted. BFC were 0-1 up.

As the first half drew to a close, Amrinder needlessly tried to waste a few seconds and got booked. The home team got a free-kick inside the penalty box. But Christopher Chizoba, who took the free kick, sent it just wide and wasted a golden opportunity. 

In the second half, Chizoba got going early. A great ball saw him make his way inside the BFC box and took a shot but John Johnson managed to deflect it for a corner. Johnson came into the picture again when minutes afterwards Chizoba made a threatening run into the box, neutralizing him with a clean slash of the foot. Chizoba thought it was a foul, and got too agitated when the referee didn't grant him that; and got booked as a result.

As the hour mark went by, the home team enjoyed a period of possession dominance where they seemed to be marshalling the midfield well and building up attacks but all of them fell flat in the final third; the BFC defenders were simply faster and more skilled than the AUFC attackers. Thiha Zaw broke through the Bengaluru defensive line, had only Amrinder ahead, but took the shot too late and only found the side netting. Then Chizoba worked hard to gain a few yards past defenders but his cross into the box was weak and Lalchhuan Mawia took care of it.

Bengaluru could have gone 2 ahead when a desperate-for-goal Ayeyawadi were playing with a particularly high defensive line and a through ball allowed a speeding C.K. Vineeth to go clean past the defenders with only the keeper in front. But Vineeth completely misplaced the shot, hitting it straight at the keeper. Minutes later, Udanta ran into the AUFC box but instead of passing the ball to a better-positioned Vineeth tried to shoot himself and the keeper easily saved it.

Luckily for Bengaluru FC, these misses didn't prove to be too haunting for them. The final whistle eventually came and they secured the all-important 3 points they needed to shake off the bad start they had in the AFC Cup.

The win sends Bengaluru up to 3rd place, with 3 points from 3 matches. It's not the most comfortable place to be, nor was it the most convincing win. But it's a start; and it puts them in a position where they will have a chance to go through to the knockout rounds if they win both the home games they will play in April against Ayeyawadi and Lao Toyota.