Starting Line-ups:

After securing a closely-fought win against Mumbai FC to join Mohun Bagan at the top, 2013/14 I-League champions Bengaluru FC travelled to Pune to take on newcomers DSK Shivajians, who were at the bottom of the table. Coach Ashley Westwood brought in last match’s hero Daniel Lahlimpuia, inspirational skipper Sunil Chhetri and left-back Keegan Pereira in place of Lalchhaunamwia, Kim Seong Yong, and Seminlen Doungel to form an attacking 4-1-3-2 formation.

With both the teams going for it from the start, the opening minutes saw some end-to-end stuff with Daniel Lahlimpuia and Baljit Sahni coming close to opening the scoring for their own teams. Sahni found the ball near the box and cut across the Bengaluru defence to take a shot, but the shot off his weaker left foot gave Amrinder Singh enough time to move across and collect the ball with ease. Daniel Lahlimpuia had a much-better effort at the other end in the fifth minute testing Subrata Paul from outside the box. But the veteran goalkeeper saw the shot all the way and calmly parried it away to avoid any danger.

As the match progressed, both teams started to take a more cautious approach curtailing their nature of free-flowing attacking play. In the 31st minute the home side had the chance of the game thus far after Sandesh Jhingan headed a ball right into the path of an unmarked Dipanda. But, the Cameroon striker blew the chance to score an easy goal by going for a smash instead of tapping it in from that point blank range.

The home crowd was silenced but not for long. It only took two minutes for DSK to bring back the scores to level terms after Spaniard Juan Quero swung in a cross from the left straight to the head of Dipanda. The striker, who missed a golden opportunity moment ago, made no mistakes this time around and headed it past Amrinder to level the scores at the Balewadi stadium. With the scores deadlocked again, the home side ended the half in the ascendancy leaving Ashley Westwood a lot to think about in the break.

DSK continued their dominance even after the break and had the perfect chance to go ahead in the 61st minute. Baljit Sahni produced a beautiful cross from the right, and Dipanda dived full length to head the ball, only to see it ricocheting off the upright. The away side kept going back and back in an attempt to keep the scores level with no creditable attacks in the first thirty minutes of the second half.

Sporting Clube de Goa vs Aizawl

In the other match of the day, Sporting Clube de Goa were held to a 1-1 draw by newcomers Aizawl FC at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Goa. Liberian striker Alfred Jaryan gave the away side the lead in the 28th minute after a miscued shot from fellow striker Joel Sunday fell into his path for a slot-in. However, the lead did not last much longer as Egyptian midfielder Mahmoud Al Amenah restored parity in the 36th minute with a delightful left-foot shot.