Sonu Norde scored the second goal in Mohun Bagan’s 2-0 win over BFC.
Bengaluru FC suffered their second home defeat in four matches in the I-League season as they went down 2-0 to champions Mohun Bagan at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium on Saturday.
Second half goals from Jeje Lalpekhlua and Sony Norde saw the Kolkata side take victory in a well contested tie while BFC were forced to play with 10-men for the final third of the match after Lalchuan-mawia was given his marching orders.
The Men in Blue remain on top of the league with 15 points from eight matches while Bagan, with two matches in hand, and East Bengal have 14 points each.
Ashley Westwood set up his team to negate the threat of Katsumi Yusa in the centre and Norde on the flanks thus cutting the supply to Jeje and Cornell Glen upfront and it worked until the sending off.
The home side also brought with them the physical side to the game with a bruising display as they hacked down Bagan’s attacks right at the start.
Chances were at premium in the first half though Bagan could have taken the lead within the first 10 minutes but Jeje’s shot was deflected out by the BFC defence.
The second half started off at the same frantic pace as the first with Beikhokhei Beingaichho firing high and Glen sending his across the face of goal within the first five minutes.
The hosts almost broke the deadlock at the hour mark after a flowing move saw the ball switch to right flank, Rino Anto curling a cross to the far post and Kim forcing a save from Debjit Majumder.
What was already a difficult task was made all the worse when Lalchua-nmawia was given marching orders in the 61st minute after being shown a second yellow for a foul on Norde.
With a man advantage, Yusa and Norde, along with the star of the night Kevin Lewis, broke their shackles as Bagan took control and went close to an opener three minutes later but Glen again proved wasteful.
In an attempt to peg back the visitors and hit on the break, Westwood brought in the pacy C.K. Vineeth in place of Kim but Bagan took the lead in the 73rd minute through Jeje.
