Bengaluru FC strolled to a 4-1 victory over DSK Shivajians FC at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium here on Wednesday to remain on top of the I-League table.
Ashley Westwood wanted a response from his side after the shock loss to Sporting Clube de Goa, and he got one, with interest.
Sunil Chetri put BFC ahead with a stunning free-kick before Kim Song Yong, Shankar Sampingiraj, and Seiminlen Doungel all found the net.
There definitely was life in the contest when the second half began, with BFC holding a slender 2-1 lead. Thereafter, however, it was all one-way traffic.
Eight minutes after the interval, Rino Anto produced a cross from the right that Beingaichho headed on target. Subrata Paul palmed the ball away, but Sampingiraj was on hand to bury the rebound. As the visitors pushed forward, BFC broke at speed, firmly putting the game to bed nine minutes from time, when young Doungel scored his first goal for BFC.
Earlier, even as the teams seemed to be sizing each other up, hen Chhetri produced a moment of brilliance to spark the game to life.
A free-kick was awarded to BFC in the 14th minute when its North Korean striker Kim was brought down just outside the area, slightly right of centre. Chetri stood over the ball, and from a run-up that was no more than two paces delightfully curled it into the net past Paul's right hand.
Beingaichho was a lively presence on the right flank for BFC, combining superbly all evening with right-back Anto. The pair set up the second goal in the 33rd minute, Anto's cross from the right nodded in by Kim.
The home team appeared to be cruising when DSFC pulled one back. Douhou Pierre was always going to be a threat to BFC and here he was in the thick of things. On the brink of half-time, the Ivorian created space on the right and squared the ball for Sampathkumar Kuttymani, once of BFC, to flick the ball in. That, however, was as good as it would get for the visitors.
“We knew their back-four plays really narrow,” BFC head coach Westwood said afterwards. “So we attacked them in the wide areas. It was a decent performance but we should have scored a few more goals tonight.”
BFC will now meet Mohun Bagan here on Saturday.
The result: Bengaluru FC 4 (Sunil Chetri 14, Kim Song Yong 33, Shankar Sampingiraj 53, Seiminlen Doungel 81) bt DSK Shivajians 1 (Sampathkumar Kuttymani 45+1).
