East Bengal rode on defender Bello Rasaq's header to defeat Salgaocar 2-1 and jump to second place in the I-League football tournament in Barasat on Sunday.
Mohammad Rafique helped East Bengal scored the opening goal of the match in the 38th minute after being set up by Mehtab Hossain as he went past Brian Mascarenhas before putting the ball past a diving Karanjit Singh.
Darryl Duffy restored parity in the 65th minute after receiving a long ball from Augustin Fernandes to put pressure on the home team.
With this win, East Bengal have now moved ahead of Bengaluru FC and are one point adrift of arch-rivals and defending champions Mohun Bagan at the halfway stage.
The Goans, on the other hand, remained eighth in the table with five points from eight matches.
Salgaocar fought hard to find another equaliser but apart from testing Luis Barreto with a header in the 90th minute, they weren't able to create any opportunities for a late second goal.
Later, DSK Shivajians staged a fine comeback to hold Shillong Lajong FC 1-1 in their I-League match at the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex in Pune.
The visitors scored through Uilliams Souza Silva (3rd minute) before DSK Shivajians fought back with a goal through striker Aser Perrick Dipanda (59th minute).
The draw helped DSK Shivajians swell their tally to five points after eight rounds.
Image used for representational purposes