From correspondents in West Bengal, India, 07:34 PM IST

A brace from Jose Ramairez Barreto saw Mohun Bagan virtually win the Sahara Kolkata Premier League after defeating traditional rivals East Bengal at the Salt Lake Stadium here Tuesday.

Barreto took his tally to 14 goals in the league.

Bagan went into the lead in the 50th minute against the run of the play. Dharamjit Singh's overhead lob released Barreto down the middle. The Brazilian marksman accelerated between the two East Bengal defenders M. Suresh and M. Bolaji and flicked the ball to the right of the net past a diving Subrata Paul (1-0).

The second goal came in injury time in the 92nd minute when Subrata Paul brought down Baichung in the penalty area. From the spot, Barreto placed the ball to the right of the net to make it 2-0.

Subrata Paul was the man behind East Bengal conceding both the goals -- the first time he was out of position and the second time he fouled Baichung. In contrast Bagan's Shilton Paul was the goalie to watch. He denied East Bengal on several occasions.

The best save came in the 77th minute when off an Ashim Biswas's floater Edmilson's first timer was plucked off the thin air by an air-borne Shilton. Five minutes later he denied Dipankar Roy with a fine save. Roy came in for Soumik Dey, who left with an injury.

Subrata Bhattacharjee's insistence on playing Bolaji backfired as he was often beaten by the Baichung-James-Barreto combine. Mukansi Scooter of South Africa, who was kept to warm the bench, could have been a better choice, with Dipankar given Bolaji's position.

During the lemon break, Bagan coach Roberto Carlos Parreira, known to be a quality student of the game, made a couple of tactical changes. He asked the players to spread the game and go all out for a goal. The tactic worked and he found the result five minutes after resumption. Bhattacharjee, in contrast, stuck to his theme and when he needed to bring in Dipendu Biswas, he sat on the move. He made the change in the 80th minute, definitely too late.

Though East Bengal held sway for the major part of the game, they could not translate their superiority into goals. Thirty minutes into the match East Bengal found their first real chance. Alvito's cross saw Edmilson get the ball in the clear off a Jayanta Sen header. But his side volley went off the mark.

Thirty-eight minutes into the game, Edmilson got a freekick 10 yards outside the box. His blockbuster ricocheted off Sanjiv Maria to Alvito D'Cunha whose grounder was well collected by Shilton Paul.

Forty-one minutes into the match, Edmilson missed the easiest chance of the first half. Fed by Nabi, he sidestepped N.S. Manju to find Shilton alone. But the goalie plucked the ball off his feet to deny East Bengal.

Bagan got their only chance of the half in the 43rd minute, when James Singh shot wide from a handshaking distance.

In the first leg of the league Bagan had won 4-3.

(Staff Writer, © IANS)