ISL 2017: FC Pune City vs Bengaluru FC, 5 Talking Points

Bengaluru FC secured their fourth win in five games against FC Pune City in Thursday's crunch ISL encounter. The home side took the lead but played with 10 men for more than thirty minutes of the match. BFC made the most of it and eventually won the encounter 3-1.

Here are the major talking points from tonight's match.

No Marcelinho? No Problem

For the second time this season, FC Pune City benched their star man Marcelinho. Up against table toppers, Bengaluru FC, Pune were in for a real challenge and restricting the Brazilian to the bench didn't look like the best move at first.

Pune were intelligent, calm and composed on the ball. They made regular inroads into Bengaluru's half and had no trouble in regularly testing BFC's back line.

The likes of Alfaro, Isaac and Deigo Carlos looked extremely confident and combined well on more than one occasion. One wondered if Pune would be able to truly test Bengaluru with their star man on the bench? The Maharashtrian outfit showed they are in no way dependent on one man.

It was a pity, however, that they went down to 10 men after Baljit Sahni's red card, something that BFC capitalised upon, to score three late goals.

Rusty Sunil still hasn't hit top form yet

Despite scoring a last-minute goal, Sunil Chhetri looked like a frustrated man for the rest of the match. (Photo: ISL)

Playing their fifth match of the season, Bengaluru have Miku and Paartalu to thank for their position on the table. But one concerning aspect tonight was the performance of their captain, Sunil Chhetri.

Since the start of the season, Sunil has managed to score just one goal in four matches. Since his goal against Mumbai City, Chhetri has looked off the boil. Against Pune, he looked rusty and misplaced his pass on multiple occasions. He rarely troubled Pune's back four and his partnership with Miku was far from effective.

On his own, Miku is a beast but if Bengaluru are to challenge for the title, they need their captain to deliver too. Sooner rather than later. Chhetri looked out of sorts and cut a frustrating figure on the pitch, although he did eventually score in the final seconds of the match. Bare in mind, Pune were down to 10 men and extremely tired when Chhetri scored his second goal of the season.

Pune take the game to Bengaluru

Adil Khan exults after scoring the opening goal. (Photo: ISL)

Far too many teams this season have shown far too much respect towards Bengaluru. As a result, when sides face the ISL debutants, they already enter the match in a defensive and negative state of mind. Eventually, they end up paying the price for their tepid approach.

Pune came into tonight's match against Bengaluru on equal footing. They had the same points as their opponents and were scoring goals on a regular basis. Unlike the others, the home side refused to be pinned back and took the game to the Blues, who were caught a bit off guard with Pune's ultra-positive approach.

The visitors looked flustered for large parts of the match and found it difficult to keep up with the tempo of the game. Credit to Pune for playing attacking football. They were duly rewarded when Adil Khan scored a bullet header to give his side the lead. They moved the ball between the lines extremely well and kept BFC's centre-backs on edge all night long.

BFC looked unusually pedestrian tonight

FC Pune City played with a lot of intent as long as they had 11 men on the pitch. (Photo: ISL)

Bengaluru are a side renowned for their professionalism on the pitch. They rarely take their foot off the gas. Which is why, tonight, it was rather unusual to see the visitors struggling to keep possession of the ball.

Even the in-form, Paartalu was guilty of conceding possession far too easily and was substituted at the hour mark. Striker Miku struggled to involve himself in the thick of things. Udanta rarely got a chance to run riot on the right and Sunil looked sluggish for large parts of the game.

Bengaluru lacked urgency and took too much time to move the ball from one end of the pitch to the other. Pune pressed them incessantly and worked extremely hard to keep the visitors at bay. Luckily for BFC, the red card to Pune's, Baljit Sahni in the second half made things far easier.

Red card changed everything

Baljit Sahni's red card turned the match on its head. (Photo: ISL)

The Indian Super League has seen 5 red cards this season. Two of them have been shown to FC Pune City players. Tonight, Baljit Sahni received his marching orders on the 56th minute for a petulant tackle on Nobrega.

It completely changed the nature of the game. Prior to that indecent, Pune were dominating BFC and looked on course to secure a vital victory. However, the red card meant Bengaluru could finally impose themselves on the game and they did so immediately. Miku scored eight minutes after Baljit was sent off and punished the home side. He returned to haunt them half-volleying a loose ball from close range to give BFC a crucial lead.

If there is one thing missing for Pune, it's their inability to assess situations. Leading 1-0 and dominating proceedings, there was no good reason for Baljit to dive into a tackle and put his team at risk. One can never imagine Bengaluru doing the same, had they been in a similar position.