Mohun Bagan thumped Club Valencia of Maldives 4-1 in the return leg of their AFC Cup play-off at the Rabindra Sarobar Stadium here on Tuesday.
Jeje Lalpekhlua was denied a hat-trick as his second strike was penciled in as an own-goal by Valencia defender Hussain Nihan, who seemed to have the final touch in the incident in question.
Sony Norde struck the final goal to complete the scoring process and helped Bagan join Bengaluru FC, Maldivian Maziya and Abahani Krirachakra of Dhaka in the group league.
Bagan went into the lead in the second minute of the action when the Valencia left-back Hisam Salem was hauled up for handling the ball inside his own box while trying to stop an attempt from Jeje, who converted the resultant penalty.
Mohun Bagan doubled the lead in the last minute of the first half when Jeje went for a nice cross from Balwant in the Valencia box. The Bagan forward seemed to find a touch on the ball but referee Vo Minh Tri of Vietnam decided that the final touch on the goal-bound ball came from Nihan.
The second half saw Valencia put up a much improved performance and that helped it pull one back through its Nigerian striker Godfrey Omodu, in the 52nd minute.
A 2-2 draw would have helped Valencia pip Mohun Bagan on the away-goal rule but before the visitor could plot another strike, the host introduced Japanese play-maker Katsumi Yusa in the middle.
This quickly turned things in the hosts favour as Yusa fashioned two brilliant moves that saw Bagan scoring twice in quick succession.
The result: Mohun Bagan 4 (Jeje Lalpekhlua 2-pen, 82, Hussain Nihan 45-og, Sony Norde 87) bt Club Valencia 1 (Godfrey Omodu 52).
