2018 Indian Super League playoffs

Main article: 2017–18 Indian Super League

The 2018 Indian Super League playoffs was fourth playoffs series in the Indian Super League, one of the top Indian professional football leagues. The playoffs began on 7 March 2018 and concluded with the final on 17 March 2018 in Bangalore.

2018 Indian Super League playoffs

Tournament details
Country	India
Teams	4
Final positions
Champions	Chennaiyin
Runners-up	Bengaluru
Semifinalists	Goa Pune City
Tournament statistics
Matches played	5
Goals scored	14 (2.8 per match)
Top goal scorer(s)	Sunil Chhetri (4 goals)
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The top four teams from the 2017–18 ISL regular season had qualified for the playoffs. The semi-finals took place over two legs while the final was a one-off match at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium. Chennaiyin won the final after defeating Bengaluru 3–2. This would be the second time that Chennaiyin won the title.

The defending champions from last season, ATK, failed to qualify for the playoffs this season and thus were not able to defend their title.

Season table

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Bengaluru	18	13	1	4	35	16	+19	40	Qualification for ISL play-offs
2	Chennaiyin[a] (C)	18	9	5	4	24	19	+5	32
3	Goa	18	9	3	6	42	28	+14	30
4	Pune City	18	9	3	6	30	21	+9	30
5	Jamshedpur	18	7	5	6	16	18	−2	26
6	Kerala Blasters	18	6	7	5	20	22	−2	25
7	Mumbai City	18	7	2	9	25	29	−4	23
8	Delhi Dynamos	18	5	4	9	27	37	−10	19
9	ATK	18	4	4	10	16	30	−14	16
10	NorthEast United	18	3	2	13	12	27	−15	11

Source: Indian Super League
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) head-to-head goal difference; 4) head-to-head goals scored; 5) goal difference; 5) number of goals scored; 6) fair play ranking; 6) drawing of lots
(C) ISL Cup winners
Notes:

1. Qualified for 2019 AFC Cup qualifying play-offs

Teams

Bengaluru, a new expansion side in the Indian Super League, were the first side to qualify for the playoffs on 9 February 2018.^[1] The side managed to qualify after only 15 matches and having gained 33 points.^[1] Pune City became the second side to qualify for the playoffs after Jamshedpur, another new expansion side, were defeated by Bengaluru on 26 February.^[2] The victory for Bengaluru also ensured that they would finish the season at the top of the table.^[2]

Chennaiyin, the 2015 ISL season champions, were the third side to confirm their qualification for the playoffs on 27 February. This was due to Mumbai City suffering defeat to Delhi Dynamos.^[3] The last spot in the playoffs was not decided until the last match day of the regular season when Jamshedpur hosted Goa at the Kalinga Stadium. Both Jamshedpur and Goa were the only two sides eligible for that last spot. Goa would go on to win the match 3–0 and thus became the final team to qualify for the playoffs.^[4]

Bracket

	Semi-finals							Final
	1	Bengaluru	0	3	3
	4	Pune City	0	1	1
								1	Bengaluru	2
								2	Chennaiyin	3
	2	Chennaiyin	1	3	4
	3	Goa	1	0	1

Semi-finals

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Pune City	1–3	Bengaluru	0–0	1–3
Goa	1–4	Chennaiyin	1–1	0–3

Leg 1

7 March 2018

20:00 IST

Pune City	0–0	Bengaluru
	Report

Balewadi Stadium, Pune

Attendance: 9,284

Referee: Om Prakash Thakur

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10 March 2018

20:00 IST

Goa	1–1	Chennaiyin
Lanzarote 64'	Report	Thapa 71'

Fatorda Stadium, Margao

Attendance: 18,492

Referee: Santosh Kumar

Leg 2

11 March 2018

20:00 IST

Bengaluru	3–1	Pune City
Chhetri 15', 65' (pen.), 89'	Report	Lucca 82'

Sree Kanteerava Stadium, Bangalore

Attendance: 24,214

Referee: Turki Al Khudair

Bengaluru won 3–1 on aggregate

---

13 March 2018

20:00 IST

Chennaiyin	3–0	Goa
Lalpekhlua 26', 90' Ganesh 29'	Report

Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Chennai

Attendance: 19,013

Referee: Turki Al Khudair

Chennaiyin won 4–1 on aggregate

Final

Main article: 2018 Indian Super League final

17 March 2018

20:00 IST

Bengaluru	2–3	Chennaiyin
Chhetri 9' Miku 90+2'	Report	Alves 17', 45' Augusto 67'

Sree Kanteerava Stadium, Bangalore

Attendance: 25,753

Referee: Ali Abdulnabi

Goalscorers

4 goals

• Sunil Chhetri (Bengaluru)

2 goals

• Jeje Lalpekhlua (Chennaiyin)
• Maílson Alves (Chennaiyin)

1 goal

• Manuel Lanzarote (Goa)
• Anirudh Thapa (Chennaiyin)
• Jonatan Lucca (Pune City)
• Dhanpal Ganesh (Chennaiyin)
• Raphael Augusto (Chennaiyin)
• Miku (Bengaluru)

Notes