Iranians get off to disappointing start at ACL
early in the game.
Pakhtakor’s Dragan Ceran seemed to have fouled Persepolis fullback Mohammad Naderi before his headed ball came of the post to fall into Marat Bikmaev’s path, who tapped in from point-blank in a presumably offside position.
Branko Ivankovic’s men, however, were quick to grab the equalizer with Croatian striker Mario Budimir opening his account in a Persepolis outfit with a sizzling low shot inside the box midway through the first half.
From that point on, it was the Reds who enjoyed the majority of the ball but were short of ideas and seemed to lose steam, especially in the second half, approaching the end of the game.
Persepolis travels to Doha for a repeat of last year’s semifinal against Al Sadd next week, which had its own misery with a 2-0 away defeat against Saudi Arabia’s Al Ahli.
Meanwhile, in Group C, Esteghlal was always the second best but still showed great resilience against Rui Faria’s Al Duhail – but only for 56 minutes – and could have even gone in front early in the second half when Farshid Baqeri’s close-range effort was tapped away by the French keeper Amine Lecomte.
Former Juventus defender Mehdi Benatia marked his AFC Champions League debut with a goal, heading home Murad Naji’s cross to open the scoring for Al Duhail in the 56th minute.
Top scorer Youssef El-arabi doubled the Qatari side’s lead in the 74th minute before Ali Hassan Afif sealed the victory for the Qataris in the stoppage time.
Esteghlal welcomes Al Ain to Tehran next Tuesday.