After defeating Bengaluru FC 2-1 in the championship game here on Tuesday, Odisha FC was declared the Super Cup football tournament's victor. This was the team's maiden trophy.
While Brazilian Diego Maurcio scored both goals for the victors in the first half, Bengaluru FC was able to close the gap thanks to a penalty goal from Sunil Chhetri in the 84th minute.
Despite playing against seasoned opponents in Bengaluru, Odisha dominated the first half thanks to two goals from Mauricio. Additionally making history, Clifford Miranda won the Super Cup for the first time ever as an Indian coach.
In a rain-delayed kick-off, Bengaluru FC, which was competing in their third final of the year, came out on top.
While Odisha, who had let up two goals in the opening minutes of their previous two games, were willing to sit back and begin their first-ever final cautiously, the Blues maintained a tonne of possession in the opponent's half.
However, Bengaluru's ball control decreased when the rain subsided. Odisha started to cause problems from corners, and their first major opportunity came from Carlos Delgado's close-range volley off of a Sahil Panwar corner. Sandesh Jhingan was there to provide Bengaluru with a last-ditch block.
Odisha's game-changing moment occurred in dramatic way in the 23rd minute when Gurpreet Singh Sandhu botched a simple gathering from a seemingly innocuous Maurcio free-kick.
The Bengaluru custodian was directly in the path of the Brazilian's strike, but despite putting his full body behind it, he allowed the ball to escape his grasp and dribble beyond the goal line.
A few minutes later, Maurcio missed another opportunity by heading a Jerry Mawihmingthanga cross wide of the far post. But once he scored it 2-0 seven minutes before halftime, Odisha's talisman was impossible to stop.
Victor Rodriguez's diagonal pass found Jerry on the right, and he headed it across the goal to kick it all off. Gurpreet was caught off guard as Mauricio tapped it in while rushing past Sandesh Jhingan, his marker.
Miranda's team kept up the pace and had a chance to double their advantage before halftime as Bengaluru were disorganised and thoroughly outmatched.
Nandha Kumar was the first to attempt a curving volley from the edge of the box, but Gurpreet matched it. When Jerry entered the area from the right, he immediately caused difficulty down the wing, sending a powerful attempt off the crossbar.
Bengaluru made as many as four changes in the second half, considering that they were just behind two goals at the break.
Sivasakthi Narayanan, Pablo Perez, Prabir Das, and Aleksandar Jovanovic were all added by Simon Grayson in an effort to prevent a second final defeat in less than a month.
However, Odisha remained dominant after the break as well, keeping Gurpreet in the Blues' goal busy.
He had to dive low to block Mauricio's long-range shot only 40 seconds into the second half. He was at full stretch five minutes later to deflect Victor's audacious chipped effort over the crossbar.
Nandha, who had been a threat on the left flank, continued to be a threat on the right. Victor passed Nandha a ball that split the defenders, and Nandha fired a strong low shot that Prabir was able to parry into the side goal.
Bengaluru's first on-target shot didn't test Amrinder till 77 minutes. Additionally, it didn't seem terribly dangerous. Pablo tried a low shot through a maze of legs at the outside of the box since he was out of alternatives, but Amrinder easily blocked it.
A chance for Bengaluru came with just six minutes remaining when Sivasakthi was taken down in the box by Nandha. The ever-reliable Chhetri executed the next penalty with a one-step run-up into the goal.
