Barreto

Mumbai: A day after leading Mohun Bagan to a 5-0 rout of Air India, Jose Ramirez Barreto said that league leaders Mahindra United’s identical win over Lajong at the Cooperage two days ago inspired his side’s domineering performance on Sunday.

“We were watching Mahindra’s 5-0 win over Lajong FC and I was thinking we could also score as many goals,” the Brazilian striker told The Telegraph on Monday.

Barreto once more showed his uncanny ability to be at the right place at the right time by poaching four goals. “I have never scored so many goals,” he said.

The 33-year-old said that despite the huge margin, it was not a cakewalk for his team.

“The first half was a bit difficult. The ground was a bit hard and Air India were a bit defensive. Their coach comes with that strategy but after the penalty (which he converted for the first goal in injury time before the break) they had to open,” he said.

Barreto felt that the victory indicated that “the team had a good bench strength”, but coach Karim Bencharifa had a word of caution for his wards. The win doesn’t mean that our problems have been solved,” Bencharifa said.

“We are passing through a difficult time. We are missing players due to injury and even if some of them have come back, it takes some time before they are back to their best.