The Indian Super League’s seventh matchday kicked off with an intriguing clash between 10th-placed Odisha FC and 4th-placed Bengaluru FC. Stuart Baxter’s side were still searching for their first win of the season and they only had a point in the bag, while the Blues had maintained their unbeaten record. An important clash was set to take place, and here’s what we made of it: Gurpreet Singh Sandhu (6.5), Harmanjot Khabra (7), Pratik Chaudhari (6), Juanan (6.5), Ashique Kuruniyan (7), Suresh Singh Wangjam (7), Erik Paartalu (6.5), Dimas Delgado (8*), Cleiton Silva (7.5), Kristian Opseth (4.5), Sunil Chhetri (7.5) Subs: Fran González (5), Udanta Singh (6), Amay Morajkar (5) Deshorn Brown (6), Thongkhosiem Haokip (N/A)

Sunil Chhetri

If you Google the word ‘evergreen’, Sunil Chhetri’s name should absolutely pop up. The now 36-year-old forward is showing no signs of slowing down, as he continues to work extremely hard up front for his side’s cause. Tonight, he opened the scoring with a thumping header, laying a mark on the Odisha FC defence. He even had to slot into the left-back role for a few minutes when Ashique went off, and he excelled there too.

11 – At 170 cms, @chetrisunil11 is one of the shortest strikers in the @IndSuperLeague. Since @bengalurufc's debut in the #ISL in 2017-18, the Indian captain has scored 11 headed goals, the most by any player with the head in the ISL. Prolific. #OFCBFC #LetsFootball #HeroISL pic.twitter.com/aGWFskVdof

— OptaJeev (@OptaJeev) December 17, 2020 The Indian captain needed 30 touches to create 2 chances, win 2/3 of his aerial duels and score with his only shot on target. Yet another clinical performance.

What This Means:

Bengaluru FC move up to 3rd in the table thanks to Deshorn Brown’s first ISL assist, while Odisha FC stay in 10th place. Sunil Chhetri’s goal means that he has become the first Indian to reach 50 goal involvements in ISL history with 42 goals and eight assists. Stats courtesy Sofascore.com

Report

Benagluru FC had a good chance to score early on when Erik Paartalu’s deflected cross reached Kristian Opseth at the edge of the six-yard box, but he shinned it well wide. Then, Paartalu himself had a look in the fifth minute when he let fly from a fair distance but just missed it. The Blues continued to look good and had another presentable opportunity in the 7th minute when the ball broke for Dimas Delgado at the edge of the box, but he launched it way over the crossbar. Odisha started to get back into the match thereafter though, and they hit the back of the net in the 9th minute when Diego Maurício sent Marcel Onwu through on goal, but his strike was ruled out for a marginal offside call. A minute later, Onwu flashed a brilliant ball across the box for Maurício, who just couldn’t reach it for what would have been a simple tap-in. Bengaluru finally broke the deadlock in the 38th minute when Harmanjot Khabra picked out Sunil Chhetri with a cross, and the Indian captain out-jumped Shubham Sarangi to power his header home.