Bengaluru FC left it late yet again, but a raucous Sree Kanteerava Stadium was not complaining on Friday. Rahul Bheke struck with two minutes left in regulation time as the home side overcame FC Pune City 2-1 and opened up a five-point gap at the top of the ISL table.

After Udanta Singh s superb opener had been cancelled out by an own goal from Bheke, BFC missed a multitude of chances. It appeared that Carles Cuadrat s men would come to regret their profligacy but Bheke redeemed himself as the fans erupted.

The game got off to a lively start, and the opening goal was not long in coming. It was a stunner.

A long diagonal pass from Dimas Delgado was received by Harmanjot Khabra near the corner flag. He laid the ball for Udanta Singh, who drove into the box, shimmied past left-back L. Fanai, and buried a fine left-footed shot inside the far post.

Minutes later, Delgado — whose return here clearly infused life into BFC s play — slipped Chencho Gyeltshen through. The Bhutanese striker s shot was only stopped by the outstretched boot of goalkeeper Kamaljeet Singh.

BFC was driving forward with ease, encountering little resistance through the middle of the pitch. So it was a surprise when Pune’s equaliser arrived, a goal completely against the run of play.

Counter-attack pays

It was the product of a counter-attack that Marcelinho was at the heart of. The Brazilian sprang down the right flank, putting Marko Stankovic through. The latter swept a cross into the box, when Bheke needlessly stuck his right foot out and deflected the ball into his own net.

The defender, playing in an unfamiliar centre-half role on the evening, may have been better off controlling the ball with his left foot.

The rest of the half was largely one-way traffic, though. BFC had multiple chances: Gyeltshen headed over from close range, Erik Paartalu s rasping shot came off the crossbar, Sunil Chhetri failed to beat the ’keeper from close range, and Xisco s long-range effort went wide.

At the end of the first period, BFC had 14 shots on goal to Pune s two. The visitor had failed to hit the target even once. It seemed as if this would come to cost BFC, but Bheke would provide the final twist.

The result: Bengaluru FC 2 (Udanta Singh 11, Rahul Bheke 88) bt FC Pune City 1 (Rahul Bheke 15-OG).