ISL 2018-19: FC Pune City 0-3 Bengaluru FC, 5 Talking Points and Tactical Analysis

Led by skipper Sunil Chhetri's brace, Bengaluru FC put their hosts FC Pune City to the sword in their first away match of ISL 2018-19, as they won 3-0 at the Balewadi Stadium in Pune to go top of the ISL standings.

Chhetri had missed a couple of gilt-edged opportunities to give Bengaluru the lead in the first-half. The Blues also saw their goal threatened by a superb Marcelinho free-kick, but their skipper eventually decided to write his story for the day.

In the 41st minute, he picked up Dimas Delgado's inch-perfect lofted pass to calmly slot beyond Vishal Kaith in the Pune goal. Two minutes later, he doubled his side's lead, as he picked up a pass from Miku and darted past two defenders to leave Kaith helpless.

The Venezuelan striker rounded off the rout midway through the second half, as he took down a long ball from defence, and smashed it past Kaith.

We take a look at some points to ponder for both sides from the game.

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#5 Miguel Portugal gets his midfield wrong

Harmanjot Khabra was once again industrious in the Blues' midfield [Image: ISL]

Against a side like Bengaluru, it is important that you're able to win the midfield battle, from where you can build and trouble what still isn't a completely settled defence. But Pune got that wrong straight from the off in this game. With Marcelinho coming back into the starting lineup, they played a 4-4-2, with Ashique Kuruniyan and Nikhil Poojary on the flanks.

That meant Adil Khan and Jonathan Vila already had a numerical disadvantage to deal with, against the Bengaluru midfield of Dimas Delgado, Harmanjot Singh Khabra and Erik Paartalu. The industry of Khabra and Paartalu nullified whatever the Pune midfield brought to the game, and that gave room aplenty for Delgado to strut his stuff.

He controlled the tempo of the game for Bengaluru from the first minute, and was instrumental in the Blues' ability to control possession. With Khabra and Paartalu keeping Vila and Adil occupied, it was important for Pune to have another body in midfield to deal with the technical prowess of Delgado.

Marcelinho coming back was welcome for the Stallions. But maybe, Portugal erred by picking both Poojary and Kuruniyan. It might have been an interesting proposition for Delgado to deal with, had Shankar Sampingiraj began the game instead of one of the wingers.

That would've meant lesser space for the Spaniard to revel in, and could have blunted the threat that came from him. In the end though, by the time Sampingiraj came on, it was already too late.

#4 Bengaluru old guard foxes Pune's young guns

Chhetri gave Sarthak Golui a torrid time

Experience v Youth - it is always a very interesting subject to have a debate upon. Tonight, experience well and truly trumped the youth though, as the game was decided by three goals, all scored by the older player in a duel using his wealth of experience.

For the first goal, it was a brilliant pass from Delgado to pick out Chhetri and he finished really well, but what set the goal up was the intelligence and the preciseness of his movement.

Chhetri bent his run superbly to not be caught offside, and ran right across Sarthak Golui, who was watching the ball. By the time he could retreat, Chhetri was away and face-to-face with Kaith.

The second goal too, was a story of Golui being undone by Chhetri - in the mind, rather than physically. Once Miku had laid it off to his skipper, Chhetri still had plenty of work to do. He took the ball past Golui and then with another slight touch fooled Kaith as well. That eventually gave him a virtually empty net to put the ball into.

The third goal was all about the spatial awareness and intelligence of Miku. It was a long-ball from Juanan which the Venezuelan brought down on his chest. The touch with the chest was also so good, it took him past Sahil Panwar, who was in close attendance. Once he'd got past Panwar, he wasted no time on ceremonies, and absolutely smacked the ball past Kaith into the bottom corner.

For the best of defenders in this league, it is a tough task to deal with Miku and Chhetri in full flow. For two youngsters still learning the tricks of the trade, it proved a near-impossible ask.

#3 Dimas Delgado asserts his authority

Dimas Delgado ran the proceedings from the middle of the park [Image: ISL]

Despite Pune's set-up guaranteeing him the freedom to run the game from midfield, Delgado put in the sort of performance that, rightly, should have everyone purring about it.

From the first minute, he got himself on the ball and sprayed passes out to all and sundry, barely breaking a sweat in his attempts to do so.

Delgado brings so much to this Bengaluru side, some of those aspects are seen only in his absence. His ability to control the tempo of play and have the game played at the pace which he wants is something not many midfielders in this league are capable of doing.

Delgado was obviously hugely helped by the fact that Chhetri, Miku and Udanta kept making the right kinds of runs for his passing to be lethal. Of course, his range of passing helped, but the wavelength which he shares with this front three is something special as well.

At 35, he isn't getting any younger. But Delgado still looks fit, he still looks hungry and most importantly, he doesn't look any worse on the ball than you'd expect from him. Cuadrat and Bengaluru would want that hat maintained in mint shape, at least for this season.

🎩 He wears a hat, but you can't see it. It's magic! RT if you're buzzing to see @DimasDelgadoMor back. #PUNBEN #WeAreBFC #MAG1CI4N ✨ pic.twitter.com/tPKCgVmyP5

— Bengaluru FC (@bengalurufc) October 22, 2018

#2 Sunil Chhetri shuts the naysayers down

Chhetri celebrates putting Bengaluru in the lead [Image: ISL]

By his own high standards, Sunil Chhetri has had a rather quiet start to the season. He was mostly anonymous in the Blues' opening game against Chennaiyin FC. Then, despite getting a goal, he took the blame on himself for the draw against Jamshedpur, after missing a sitter moments before the equaliser.

This game too started on a similar note for the talismanic Bengaluru captain. He had two glorious opportunities to put Bengaluru in the lead, that he squandered. The knives were being sharpened, the snipers were being loaded to target the skipper for another off day.

But just a couple of minutes after his second miss, Chhetri decided that all the knives and snipers can have an off-day, at least for now. He scored twice in the space of three minutes to knock the stuffing out of Pune, and in the process, became the highest Indian goalscorer in ISL history, going past Jeje Lalpekhlua.

It could've easily been a second consecutive hat-trick against the Stallions for Chhetri, but he was brilliantly denied by Kaith, who palmed his free-kick on to the bar.

#1 Marcelinho's off-day hurts Pune

Marcelinho wasn't able to impact proceedings [Image: ISL]

Over the course of the last season, Marcelinho and Emiliano Alfaro were talismanic figures for Pune, and the most instrumental in their rise to the playoffs last season. In this game, they both took turns at being caught offside, and largely spent the game doing nothing.

It was not a particularly intelligent set-up from Portugal as well. With Marcelinho playing in the centre, he is easy to mark and it makes it harder for him to isolate defenders and then trouble them with his skill on the flanks.

Bengaluru's two full-backs are the weak links in their defence. Rahul Bheke has had an uncertain start to the season. Nishu Kumar, who has been fabulous in the first three games, is still only young and can be troubled if attacked in the right spaces.

Most importantly, what Marcelinho playing in a wider position would've done is that it would've dragged one of Bengaluru's central midfielders towards that flank in a bid to keep his quiet, and that would have offered a lot more peace to the Pune midfield, who were all at sea.

Marcelinho didn't help himself either, as he lost the ball a little too easily, with just not enough care going into his passing. Most of his set-pieces, too, were not good enough for a team-mate to attack with conviction. With his side now having a solitary point in three games, there can be no better time for the Brazilian to stop his slumber and drag his side up the standings.