Today at the Kings Arena, the Bashundhara Kings overcame an early deficit to defeat Odisha FC by a score of 3-2 and get their AFC Cup campaign back on track. The match was tied at one point during the second half.
After the away side took an early lead, the home team responded with a goal by Miguel Figueira, and then Dorielton Gomes scored again to put the game out of reach. However, the defending champions of the Bangladesh Premier League, who suffered a 3-1 defeat on the road against Maziya S&RC in their first match, will need to be more clinical in front of goal when they face Mohun Bagan in their next match on the 24th of this month in Bhubaneshwar. This is because they squandered a multitude of opportunities to score goals in today’s match.
Bashundhara Kings made two substitutions at the beginning of their game against Maziya. Mehedi Hasan took over for Anisur Rahman Zico as the team’s goalkeeper, while Miguel took over for Sheikh Morsalin in the attacking position. As a result of the club’s decision to suspend five players for disciplinary reasons, the Bashundhara Kings were had to make those two substitutions.
Although the home side got off to a strong start, they found themselves playing from behind quite quickly. On the 19th minute, Mauricio de Brito beat Mehedi with a diagonal shot after Laldinliana Renthlei sent a great through pass.
Then, 12 minutes later, Laldinliana became Odisha’s saviour as he dove in front of the goal to prevent a goal-bound shot attempt from Robson Robinho. Robson Robinho had the goal at his mercy after a deft cutback from Dorielton. Laldinliana blocked the effort with his body.
Dorielton then failed to keep his diagonal shot on target from inside the box after playing a neat one-two with Robinho in the 36th minute. However, the persistent pressure paid off three minutes later when an unmarked Figueira headed home from close range after Robinho’s toe-poked attempt deflected off an Odisha player.
At the very last second of the first half, Dorielton gave the home team the lead with a strong header on a cross that Rakib Hossain had delivered with just the right amount of weight. The home team took a slim advantage into the halftime break.
Dorielnton finished off a through ball sent by Robinho with precision nine minutes after the restart to increase Bashundhara’s advantage. Robinho was the one who played the through ball. In a fit of wild celebration, the Brazilian striker, who had received a lot of criticism in recent times for his performance against Sharjah FC in the AFC Champions League playoff and against Maziya in the first AFC Cup tie, pulled off his jersey. Sharjah FC and Maziya were the two teams he was criticised for.
After a header from Odisha’s replacement forward Roy Krishna hit the far post in the 58th minute, Jerry Lalrinzuala cut the deficit with a shot from within the box in the 66th minute. This happened after Mehedi’s fist on a cross from Sakamoto landed to him after it was deflected to him by Jerry.
Dorielton missed a wonderful chance to clinch a hat trick in the final seconds of the play, and then Boburbek Yuldashov’s soaring header bounced against the crossbar. Opportunities continued to present themselves at both ends of the pitch in the closing stages of the game.
At the opposite end of the game, Roy Krishna had another header from point-blank range come off the crossbar at the other end as Bashundhara just about hung on to the one-goal advantage to depart the pitch with a significant win.