Ten-man Bengaluru FC registered a narrow 1-0 win against ATK in the first leg of their ISL VI semi-final clash in Bangalore on Sunday.
Deshorn Brown’s 31st-minute opportunistic strike proved to be the difference in what was a closely-fought battle. The reverse leg will be played at the Salt Lake Stadium in Calcutta on March 8.
Carles Cuadrat’s side ended the game with ten men after defender Nishu Kumar was shown a red card in the second period, adjudged to have brought down Roy Krishna when the Fiji striker was through on goal.
Edu Garcia kicked off an even contest with a shot from outside the box that went wide in the second minute.
Bengaluru FC soon made their presence felt when Dimas Delgado whipped a dangerous ball into the box. Rahul Bheke rose the highest inside the box but his header flew inches over the crossbar.
ATK’s dangerous duo, Roy Krishna and David Williams, combined well to put the ball into the net in the 17th minute. Krishna found teammate with a well-timed lob in behind the Blues defence. Williams handled the ball as he brought it down and struck it brilliantly past Gurpreet Singh Sandhu and the goal was eventually disallowed due to the handball.