Bengaluru: Ten-man Bengaluru FC registered a narrow 1-0 goal win against ATK in the first leg of their Hero Indian Super League semi-final clash at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium here on Sunday.
Deshorn Brown's opportunistic strike (31') proved to be the difference in what was a closely-fought first leg battle.
Edu Garcia kicked off an even contest with a shot from outside the box that went wide in the second minute.
Bengaluru soon made their presence felt when Dimas Delgado whipped a dangerous ball into the box. Rahul Bheke rose the highest inside the box but his header flew inches over the crossbar.
ATK's dangerous duo, Roy Krishna and David Williams, combined well to put the ball into the net in the 17th minute. Krishna found his teammate with a well-timed lob in behind the Blues defence. Williams handled the ball as he brought it down and struck it brilliantly past Gurpreet Singh Sandhu and the goal was eventually disallowed due to the handball.
The hosts continue to put pressure on the ATK defence and their effort bore fruit a minute after the half an hour mark. Gurpreet's punt from his own half ended up at the feet of Juanan whose shot from inside the box was hit straight at Arindam Bhattacharya. The ATK custodian messed up the save and spilt the ball into the path of Deshorn Brown who broke the deadlock.
Brown had a chance to double his team's lead when he received the ball outside the box before the break. The striker unleashed a piledriver that flew inches over the bar, much to the relief of Arindam in ATK's goal.
