Bengaluru Football Club (BFC) created history at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium on Wednesday, by becoming the first Indian club to enter the final of the AFC Cup. Cheered on by a crowd of over 21,000, amid a raucous, electric atmosphere, the home side took down Malaysia’s Johor Darul Ta’zim, the defending champion, to venture into brave, new territory.
“The crowd was extraordinary,” said BFC captain and star striker Sunil Chhetri afterwards. “If not for them, we wouldn’t have played the way we did.”
Having drawn the first leg 1-1 in Johor last month, BFC won 3-1 here, on what was the greatest night of the club’s history. The visitor took an early lead, but Chhetri’s equalizer just before half-time brought the crowd to its feet.
The West Block Blues, a group of the club’s most hardcore supporters, was in full voice all night, jumping up and down in the stands in untiring fashion. When Chhetri scored a spectacular goal just after the one-hour-mark to put BFC ahead, the stadium erupted in a crescendo of cheering.
“The atmosphere was fantastic,” said BFC’s Spanish coach, Albert Roca, whose first game in charge last month was played behind closed doors owing to the unrest in the city over the Cauvery water sharing issue. “Right from the first minute, the crowd did not stop supporting us. I’m glad we have such fans.”
For the dozen or so Johor fans who had made the trip to Bengaluru from Malaysia, the result was a huge disappointment. “We just made a couple of mistakes. It is difficult to accept,” said Halim Amin, a construction worker, who had travelled as part of the supporter group ‘Boys of Straits’.
Tam Rostan, who works in the oil and gas industry and has been going to Johor games since 1985, added: “I took two days off from work to be here. It’s sad how it ended. But we can’t win every year.”
BFC will meet Iraq’s Air Force Club in the final, on November 5, in Doha.
