A late Bartholomew Ogbeche winner meant Hyderabad FC not only went home with three points, but also secured second place in the ISL standings. They now have 39 points in the bag after 17 games. Meanwhile, the Mariners remain in the fourth spot with 28 points and drop further down in the race
Bartholomew Ogbeche came on as a substitute and scored the only goal of the match in the 86th minute as the Mariners went three successive games without a win for the first time this season, and are now only one point ahead of seventh-placed Odisha FC
Last week, Chennaiyin FC were on the verge of handing Hyderabad FC their third defeat of the season before a Bartholomew Ogbeche penalty in the 87th minute saw them dropping two crucial points. Three points will see the Marina Machans leapfrog rivals Bengaluru FC and move into seventh place,
For the Torch Bearers, a playoff place is getting farther as they find themselves eight points behind sixth-placed FC Goa with a game in hand. On a contrasting end, Hyderabad FC, who are one of the main challengers for the League Shield, would like to decrease the four points gap to league l
Petar Sliskovic put the Marina Machans in front with his eighth goal of the season in the 57th minute before Ogbeche converted the crucial penalty at the death to keep his side's unbeaten streak alive and dent Chennaiyin FC's playoffs march.
Ogbeche, who had previously scored only three goals in the season coming into the game, put Hyderabad FC in front on two occasions before sealing the result at the end.
Bartholomew Ogbeche ended his seven-game goal drought after taking a skillfully executed free-kick to open the scoring. The striker then forced Sandesh Jhingan to score an own goal just before halftime. In the 90th minute, Joel Chianese came off the bench to wrap up the victory.
It was a largely cagey second semi-final played here at the Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan (VYBK) with HFC having the lion's share of chances as well as possession and their star striker Batholomew Ogbeche being wasteful for once, but in the end, the Blues did well enough to win the batt