Esteghlal Tehran Defeated by Esteghlal Khuzestan in Tehran

In the seventeenth week of the Iranian Premier League, defending champion Esteghlal Khuzestan managed to defeat Esteghlal Tehran 2-1. This match was held without spectators at Azadi Stadium due to a disciplinary committee ruling. Following this defeat, Esteghlal Tehran sits in fifth place, one game ahead of three rival teams: Foolad, Sepahan, and Naft. A victory for any of these teams in their Wednesday matches will push Esteghlal down the rankings. Esteghlal Khuzestan, with this crucial three points, reached 21 points and climbed to tenth place. The two goals for Esteghlal Khuzestan were scored by Hassan Beit Saeed and Navid Ashouri, ensuring that their fans did not feel the absence of Rahim Zohavi, who has joined the Qatari league. In the final minutes, Esteghlal managed to reduce the deficit with a goal from Kaveh Rezaei. In this match, a legitimate goal for the Khuzestan representative was ruled offside. Saeed Mozaffari Zadeh, a referee expert, stated in an interview that this was the only mistake by the referee during the match. Mohammad Tayebi received a red card during stoppage time, leaving Esteghlal Khuzestan to finish the game with one less player. The players for Esteghlal included Hossein Hosseini, Majid Hosseini, Leandro Padovani, Khosrow Heydari, Yaqub Karimi, Omid Noorafkan, Voria Ghafouri (Mojtaba Haqdoust), Farshid Esmaeili (Miad Yazdani), Behnam Barzai, Mohsen Karimi (Ali Ghorbani), and Kaveh Rezaei. For Esteghlal Khuzestan, the players were Vahid Sheikh Visi, Mohammad Tayebi, Danial Mahini, Peyman Shirzadi, Abolfazl Alayi, Salman Bahrani, Farshad Salarvand, Mehdi Momeni, Alois Nang, Hassan Beit Saeed, and Arash Afshin (Asghar Ashouri). Alireza Mansourian, in the post-match press conference, stated: 'We could have easily won; individual mistakes hurt us. We could have drawn. I am not satisfied with the team's performance. I accept Hosseini's mistake but not Padovani's.' The Esteghlal coach criticized the ban on spectators, saying: 'The authorities only target Esteghlal. If justice were to prevail, no game should be held without fans. Will fans not insult in the next game?' Mansourian added: 'The distractions surrounding Esteghlal are exhausting, and lies are published every day. Nowadays, there are millions of journalists in cyberspace. I wish I had the power to eliminate cyberspace. You journalists are also immersed in it. I live in the real world.' The Esteghlal Khuzestan coach, Siros Pourmousavi, told reporters: 'Even though we scored a legitimate goal that was disallowed, we ultimately managed to win.' He reminded: 'We have vowed to do something for Khuzestan because the people of Khuzestan face many problems, and this team is their joy. Our boys played with their hearts.' In other matches, the competition between Saba and Paykan ended with a 1-0 victory for Saba, marking their first win after seven consecutive defeats. The only goal for the Qom representative was scored by Omid Jahanbakhsh in the 82nd minute. With this result, Saba remains in fifteenth place, while Paykan is still fourth. Tractor Sazi Tabriz and Naft Abadan drew 2-2 at Yadegar Imam Stadium, which was also held without spectators due to a disciplinary committee ruling. Amir Ghalenooyi's team lost the opportunity to take the lead with this result. The goals for Tractor Sazi were scored by Mohammad Ebrahimi and Omid Alishah. For Naft, Zobair Nik Nafas and Ali Abdollahzadeh managed to score, earning a valuable point for the Abadan team from Tabriz. Tractor Sazi reached 34 points with this draw, trailing Persepolis by one point and one game more. Naft Abadan also reached 20 points and is in eleventh place.