Zobahan dent Al Wasl’s hopes of qualification
dubai — Al Wasl’s hopes of qualifying for the Round of 16 took a massive dent after ‘The Cheetahs’ suffered their third successive defeat in the AFC Champions League on Tuesday.
Al Wasl fell behind to early strikes from the Iranian club Zobahan to lose their Group A fixture 2-0 at the Foolad Shahr Stadium in Isfahan, Iran. Midfielder Alireza Cheraghali put Zobahan ahead in the very second minute of the game and striker Amir Arsalan Motahari added the second on 15 minutes.
It marked Al Wasl’s third loss after having gone down to Iraq’s Al Zawraa Club 5-0 and 3-1 to Zobahan at home two weeks ago.
The only win for The Cheetahs came against Saudi Arabia’s Al Nassr, a solitary goal victory on Match Day One last month.
The Dubai club are at the bottom of the table with three points, while Zobahan moved to 10 points with this win and strengthened their chances of moving into the next stage. It was Zobahan’s third win on the trot and the first time the Iranian club had done so since 2016. Zobahan had begun with a goalless draw against Al Zawraa Club before going on to beat Al Nassr 3-2.
Meanwhile, Al Wasl have now lost nine of their last 10 games. And their bad form against Iranian opposition continued with Al Wasl never having won against Iranian clubs in the competition, losing five
of their six meetings until now.
Zobahan wasted little time in taking a hold of the game by going ahead on two minutes. Amir Arsalan Motahari came up with a fine assist and Alireza Cheraghali struck his right-footer, from inside the box, past goalkeeper Humaid Abdulla.
The Cheetahs had a chance to restore parity two minutes later but Caio Canedo sent his shot wide of the post following an assist from Ronaldo Mendes.
Zobahan increased the pressure with Ghasem Hadadifar and Motahari coming close in the opening 10 minutes and while Hadadifar drilled his left-footer over the cross bar, Abdulla did well to deny Motahari. Despite conceding early, Al Wasl held their line and Zobahan’s Ighodaro Christian Osaguona and Mohammad Reza Hosseini were caught off-side.
At the other end, Ali Saleh was found to be an offside position after being put through by Waheed Ismail. But the hosts added cushion to the lead on 15 minutes with Motahari coming up with a fine header off Hamid Maleki. Al Wasl’s next match is against Al Nassr at the King Fahd Stadium, while Zobahan take on Al Zawraa Club at the Karbala International Stadium, on May 7.