"We were wondering what we were going to do after the league stage finished," said Sunil Chhetri in a post-match interview after Bengaluru FC beat Mumbai City FC on penalties to reach the Indian Super League (ISL) final. And who could blame him for wondering that? After 12 ISL games this season, Bengaluru were languishing in ninth, having only earned 10 points until then.
In 2023, Bengaluru took the internet's favourite "new year, new me" trend to a whole new level altogether. They won 10 games on the spin, then 'lost' a semifinal home leg for the first time ever, but won a penalty shootout to book their spot in a third ISL final.
This is the story of a comeback for the ages. A week before it began, Cleiton Silva dealt Bengaluru what seemed a fatal blow with a 90th-minute free-kick that gave East Bengal a 2-1 win at the Salt Lake stadium.
NorthEast United 1-2 Bengaluru FC
Against the league's bottom-placed side, Bengaluru huffed and puffed, finding inspiration from Sivasakthi Narayanan's first ISL goal, before quickly conceding an equaliser. Then, in injury time, Alan Costa's head met an Udanta Singh cross for a winner that Chhetri, Aleksandar Jovanovic and Gurpreet Singh Sandhu all acknowledged was the turning point of their season.
Alan Costa's header wins it for @bengalurufc at the death!