Defending champions Bengaluru FC registered a narrow 1-0 win over ATK in the first leg of their Hero Indian Super League semi-final clash at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium here on Sunday.
Deshorn Brown's opportunistic strike (31st minute) proved to be the difference in what was a closely-fought first leg battle.
ATK’s dangerous duo, Roy Krishna and David Williams, combined well to put the ball into the net in the 17th minute. Krishna found his 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, but the goal was eventually disallowed due to the handball.
The hosts continued to put pressure on the ATK defence and their effort bore fruit a minute after the half an hour mark.
Gurpreet’s punt from his own half ended up at the feet of Juanan whose shot from inside the box was hit straight at Arindam Bhattacharya. The ATK custodian messed up the save and spilt the ball into the path of Deshorn Brown, who broke the deadlock.
Bengaluru suffered a late blow when Nishu Kumar was sent off for a tug on Krishna. The Fijian striker was brought down outside the box by the full-back and the latter's last-man challenge was punished by the referee.
ATK, however, were unable to force an equaliser and now have to come from behind in the reverse leg in Kolkata next Sunday