History: relegated Aizawl FC beat champions Bengaluru at their home, knock them out of Fed Cup

A TEAM POSSESSED. An act of rebellion. A night of history. It all unfolded at Kanteerava tonight.

Relegated I-League club Aizawl FC outplayed champions Bengaluru FC in every department to hand them a convincing and historical 2-3 defeat, knocking them out of the Federation Cup by a 5-3 aggregate.

The match, kicked off late due to an athletic event taking place at the stadium, saw both sides throw everything they had into this high-stakes game. Although Aizawl FC had won the first leg encounter at their home 2-1, the away goal rule meant a 1-0 win would have been enough for Bengaluru to go through to the Fed Cup semi-finals.

But as soon as the match began it was clear that this wasn't going to be an easy ride for the mighty Blues. Both teams were eager to get an early goal. Keegan Pereira tried, Michael Collins combined with Nishu Kumar. Then Alfred Jaryan almost outran Curtis Osano to create space deep inside Bengaluru half; a sign of things to come.

The aggression was also on its way up. Joel Sunday brought down John Johnson and was lucky not to get carded. Then Alfred Jaryan knocked on BFC's door again with a long ranger but missed the mark. Vineeth tried to invade but got brought down Lalchhawnkima from behind, and the yellow card finally came out.

After some more end to end action, the first goal of the night came. Alfred Jaryan sent the ball, and no one was guarding Joel Sunday. Straight in. Aizawl took a 0-1 lead.

But next minute, BFC striked back. Chigozie tried a clearance that went straight to Vineeth instead, and the latter shot it straight into a corner of the net. 1-1, and it seemed the game was on.

But Joel Sunday came out swinging again, as Alfred Jaryan sent a beauty of a ball past two erring BFC defenders and the Nigerian set the ball screaming into the net. It was 1-2, and suddenly the away goal advantage had shifted to Aizawl FC, which meant Bengaluru would now have to score 3 goals to survive losing this tie.

And the ask went up to 4 goals early in the second half when David Lalrinmuana took a free kick that left everyone, including BFC keeper Amrinder Singh, rooted to the ground. The ball went in as if in slow motion, the last nail in the coffin of BFC's Federation Cup title defence.

There wasn't much chance for Bengaluru to recover from this point. But they tried. A John Johnson header almost found the target. A Kim Song-yong shot was a bit too high. Johnson tried another header but Poirei did well to save it despite very short reaction time.

Then BFC got a goal. Out of a penalty given away by Brandon Vanlalremdika's needless foul on Udanta Singh. Sunil Chhetri slotted it in. But by now 74 minutes had passed and BFC still needed 3 more goals. It was over and the skipper knew it; he could barely keep himself calm and got into tiffs with the referee in the remaining few minutes.

And then it came. The final whistle. The confirmation that for the first time in the history of Indian football, a league champions had been knocked out of the Federation Cup by a relegated club.

After the explosive declarations he made to TFG, Aizawl FC head coach had walked the talk. He had proved to the fans and the AIFF what their team was worth. This performance by Aizawl FC, which saw every single of their players go beyond themselves to stand up for each other and the team, was nothing less than an act of rebellion against a system that they saw as rigged against them. And if they managed to prove anything this night, it was that their absence from I-League top division will be much bigger loss for the league, its fans and Indian football in general than themselves.

But for now, their job is not done yet. They will travel back to Mizoram to prepare for the Federation Cup semi-finals. Thanks to that being a double header too, the football crazy population of Aizawl will get to see one more big-ticket match on their home soil. And after the kind of performance Aizawl FC have displayed in both legs against a team like Bengaluru FC, all bets are off as per how far the Peoples' Club can go in the Federation Cup, and what they can achieve.