Esteghlal Defeats Paykan with Four Goals

In the last match of the first week of the second round of the Iranian Premier League, Esteghlal Tehran defeated Paykan by four goals. With this result, Esteghlal reached 28 points and reduced the point gap with the leaders, placing them fifth in the table. This result marks the seventh consecutive defeat for Paykan in this year's Premier League. The players of Hossein Faraki experienced their heaviest defeat in the past six years against Winfried Schäfer's men. Paykan, which was among the top teams in the table, is now in the danger zone due to consecutive losses and may face relegation if the defeats continue. The last match of the week was held at the Shahr-e Qods Stadium with the presence of 10,000 spectators. The blue-clad team of Tehran, which has recruited several new players during the winter transfer window, showcased some of their acquisitions in this match. The lineup for Esteghlal included Mehdi Rahmati, Pejman Montazeri, Armin Sohrabian, Mohammad Danshgar, Omid Noorafkan (Milad Zaki Pour), Roozbeh Cheshmi, Farshid Bagheri, Dariush Shojaian (Godwin Mensah), Voria Ghafouri, Farshid Esmaeili, and Morteza Tabatabai (Ismail Goncalves). Esteghlal scored early in the 16th minute with a shot from Morteza Tabatabai, who struck the ball firmly into the net of Vahid Sheikh Vaisi. In the second half, in the 58th minute, Esmaeili provided a deep pass to Zaki Pour, who scored the second goal with a shot. In the 83rd minute, Ismail Goncalves, a new player from Guinea-Bissau, increased the lead to three goals. Goncalves joined Esteghlal from Pakhtakor and has played for prominent teams such as Nice in France, Rio Ave in Portugal, and St. Mirren in Scotland. In the 91st minute, Voria Ghafouri managed to break the deadlock of Paykan's goal again with a shot, gifting a delightful victory to Esteghlal's fans. Thus, the separation of Majid Jalali and the recruitment of Hossein Faraki did not prevent the continuation of Paykan's losing streak. Godwin Mensah's first game for Esteghlal was one of the interesting points of this match. This Nigerian striker joined Esteghlal from Persepolis. Winfried Schäfer, the head coach of Esteghlal, stated in the press conference that the start of the match was somewhat difficult. He acknowledged that they knew Paykan was good at counter-attacks and expressed his happiness about the team's spirit. He was satisfied with the performance of each of his players who fought with all their strength, stating that everyone should respect this team. In the goal-scoring table, Stanley from Sepahan leads with 9 goals, while Stokes from Tractor and Ali Pour from Persepolis each have 8 goals.