I-League: Round 3 Review – Bengaluru FC lead both on and off the pitch

Game of the round

Rangdajied United 2-2 Dempo

Rangdajied United got their first-ever point against Dempo

There was plenty of excitement surrounding this fixture as it was Rangdajied’s first-ever home game in the I-League and it turned out to be quite an eventful one with both sides sharing the points in the end. Rangdajied’s survival hopes would depend heavily on their home form so a draw isn’t really the best result but the manner in which it was earned will give them a lot of self-confidence for the rest of the campaign while Dempo will look back at the game as two points dropped because they threw away a two-goal first half lead.

Despite the absence of head coach Arthur Papas, who has gone to Australia to sort out some visa issues, Dempo finally played to their full potential in the first half of this game and silenced the 15,000 passionate home fans. Goals from Beto and Billy Mehmet saw them cruising at the break but the Goan club dropped their tempo in the second half and allowed Rangdajied to get back into the contest.

Young Lalnunpuia scored the Shillong club’s first-ever I-League goal at the hour mark and then ten minutes from the 90, young Sandesh Gadkari made it to 2-2 much to the frustration of Dempo assistant coach Mauricio Afonso. The result left Dempo winless after three rounds while it should give Rangdajied coach Santosh Kashyap some hope for the upcoming matches.