Jaipur, Jan 9 (IANS) Martand Raina and Gerard Artigas scored a goal each in added time and the late flourish of goals saw Rajasthan United FC come back from a goal deficit to beat SC Bengaluru 2-1 in their first-ever I-League encounter at the Vidhyadhar Nagar Stadium here on Thursday. Both of Rajasthan’s goals came in injury time, leaving Bengaluru at rock bottom in the table, a point adrift of their nearest challengers having played a game more.
Asif OM (85’) had put the visitors in the lead late in the second half, but Rajasthan dug deep and scored twice in injury time through Raina (90+3’) and Artigas (90+6’), whose spot-kick made all the difference in the end.
Jaipur became the latest addition to the list of I-League venues and the All India Football Federation President Kalyan Chaubey was present at the venue to witness the match, and interacted with the players ahead of kick-off. Rajasthan United, with this win, climbed a couple of spots on the I-League table, to sixth, with 10 points from seven matches, while SC Bengaluru remain at the bottom with five points from as many games.
Both teams had conceded a combined 23 goals in the league prior to this game, and so, understandably were cautious with their start, focussed more on disrupting any imaginative attacking play rather than creating it.
The first real chance of the game fell to the hosts’ Lucas Cabral, who spun away from his defender on the right side of the box and cut the ball to the centre of the box. An onrushing Naoba could only blast his shot high over the crossbar. Bishal Lama was certainly the busier of the two goalkeepers in the first half, saving smartly from Cabral and then from William Neihsial’s shot from outside the box. Bengalur’s registered their first shot on target late in the half, a Thomyo Simray attempt easily parried away by James Kithan.
Rajasthan ramped up the ante in the second half, and Cabral, at the heart of most of their attacks, was running riot on the right wing. Having driven in from the right, he took a shot towards the far corner from a tight angle, only to see it bounce off the upright. It seemed like their missed chances would hurt them as the game wore on. And so it proved, when SC Bengaluru took the lead against the run of play, late in the game. A long throw-in from the left was met with a perfect flick on by Ashish Jha towards the centre of the six-yard area. OM Asif made no mistake and slammed his header into the goal, sparking celebrations in their dugout.
Rajasthan only had themselves to blame, but to their credit, did not let their heads drop. Almost immediately, after a melee caused by a cross from the right, Gerard Artigas managed to poke the ball towards goal, only to see it cleared off the line by a defender in yellow. A long period of injury time was to come.
Bengaluru could hold neither their nerve nor the lead, in that nervous end. A defensive error after Neihsial had crossed a hopeful ball into the box, gifted Martand Raina the chance to slam the ball into the net from close range in the third minute of injury time. A few minutes later things got worse for Bengaluru.
Artigas danced his way around two defenders in the left corner of the penalty area and was brought down illegally just as he seemed to have made his way around them. The referee had no hesitation in pointing to the spot. The Spanish forward, nicknamed the Hulk, smashed his spot kick in. It was the last meaningful action of the game as Rajasthan snuck in a victory in their first game at home.
–IANS
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