Barreto stars in Bagan's easy victory

Mohun Bagan rode on the brilliance of their Brazilian recruit Jose Barreto to script an emphatic 3-0 victory over Vasco Sports Club in the National Football League, at the Salt Lake stadium, in Calcutta, on Tuesday.

The irrepressible striker struck for the home team just at the stroke of the interval and then set up the other two goals for his co-striker R C Prakash within a span of three minutes, in what turned out to be a rather lopsided contest.

Backed by their vociferous supporters, the glamour club unleashed an attacking brand of soccer right from the word go and could have won by a much bigger margin had they not frittered away a number of scoring opportunities that came their way in the fast-paced encounter.

The skillful Barreto, who has been very impressive in the league so far, fired the first salvo for the home team just at the stroke of the interval with a brilliant effort much to the delight of his teammates.

The other striker, R C Prakash, who squandered two scoring opportunities in the first ten minutes of the contest, made amends by pumping in two goals in quick succession midway through the second session to clinch the issue.

With this convincing victory, Bagan managed to consolidate their position on the points table with 21 points from 11 outings while Vasco have 17 from as many matches.