Williams double strikes as BFC edge past Chennaiyin in six-goal ISL thriller

Ryan Williams struck a brace of goals to guide Bengaluru FC to a 42 triumph over Chennaiyin FC and closed the gap on tabletoppers Mohun Bangan Super Giant in the Indian Super League ISL 202425 season at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here on Saturday nightWilliams scored a brace and Sunil Chhetri was also on the scoresheet as Bengaluru FC 27 reduced the deficit at the top with Mohun Bagan Super Giant 29 to only two points with the year coming to an end Irfan Yadwad and Lalrinliana Hnamte were on the scoresheet for Chennaiyin FCThe game started with great intensity from the first minute with Rahul Bheke testing Mohammed Nawaz with a header on target Daniel Chima Chukwu almost handed the lead to the hosts three minutes later when Lukas Brambilla unleashed him with a defencesplitting pass The Nigerianrsquos subsequent effort was blocked by Gurpreet Singh Sandhu in goalDespite having more of the ball in the first quarter of the game the Marina Machans were pegged back when Williams nestled the ball into the net from a cross delivered by Jorge Pereyra Diaz in the 16th minute But Bengaluru FCrsquos lead lasted only three minutes as the Marina Machans were rewarded for their sustained pressure with Irfan turning in the equaliser in the 19th minute It was Brambilla who was the orchestrator of the goal as he won possession in midfield before he found Irfan with a smart square pass in the penalty areaIn the 43rd minute Bengaluru FC took the lead through Sunil Chhetri against the run of play Williams found Chhetri in the penalty area completely unmarked with a cross and the record goalscorer didnrsquot make any mistake to head it past Nawaz and give Bengaluru a 2ndash1 lead However Chennaiyin FC clawed their way back right at the stroke of halftime when Gurpreet mismanaged a Lalrinliana Hnamte header following a long throwin from Bikash YumnamChennaiyin FC were the dominant side throughout the first half as they pressed higher up the pitch and won possession in dangerous areas to initiate counterattacks However they werenrsquot clinical enough to take their chances as the scores were level at the break The Marina Machans continued their high press in the second half as they were inducing mistakes from the Bengaluru FC defenders However it also meant that the visitors had acres of space behind the Chennaiyin FC defence for them to exploitBengaluru FC almost found the lead in the 56th minute when Pedro Capo combined with Pereyra Diaz in the final third However the formerrsquos effort was parried away by Nawaz The Blues gradually gained momentum with the likes of Pereyra Diaz Noguera and Williams getting into the mix of things They were eventually rewarded when Pereyra Diaz made a timely cutback to find Williams in the penalty area and the Australian slotted it past Nawaz to put Bengaluru FC ahead in the game in the 69th minuteRight after taking the lead Gerard Zaragoza brought on Aleksandar Jovanovic and Vinith Venkatesh to replace Noguera and Chinglensana Singh to strengthen the backline In retaliation Owen Coyle freshened things up with Kiyan Nassiri replacing Farukh Choudhary in attackHowever things turned bad to worse for the Marina Machans as Williamsrsquo cross was turned in by Laldinliana Renthlei into his own net in the 82nd minute handing Bengaluru FC a twogoal advantage In the last few minutes Chennaiyin FC had a few openings but they werenrsquot clinical enough to reduce the deficit as they lost five out of their last six games in the competitionBengaluru FC will face Jamshedpur FC on January 4 whereas Chennaiyin FC will play Odisha FC on January 9This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever