Iran's Premier Football League; Red Draw Benefits the Blues

In the last match of the 22nd week of Iran's Premier Football League, Persepolis and Tractor Sazi ended in a 1-1 draw at Azadi Stadium, which benefited the blue teams of Tehran and Khuzestan. The week's competitions concluded with eight weeks remaining in the season, where Esteghlal Tehran has 42 points. Esteghlal Tehran is in second place with one point less. Zob Ahan has 37 points, and Persepolis is in fourth place with 36 points. Ramin Rezaeian managed to put Persepolis ahead in the first half with a shot. The team could have scored a second goal in the same half. On the other side, Khalilzadeh also had a chance to score from a free kick by Soroush Rafiei but failed. The game continued with excitement, although firecrackers and grenades were exploding in the stadium in the presence of the UEFA security manager! In the 38th minute, following a free kick by Bakhtiar Rahmani and a mistake by Sosha Makani, the rebound was converted into a goal by Mohammad Iranpourian, equalizing the match at 1-1. This result remained until the end. The second half was controversial. A rough tackle by Bengar caused players from both teams to clash. Mirzaei, the live broadcast reporter from state television, believed the referee should have sent Bengar off. The continuation of the match was also accompanied by physical play from both teams. In the 90th minute, Ayoub Kalantari missed the best opportunity for Tractor, and while Sosha was not in the goal, he kicked the ball into Rezaeian, who was standing on the goal line. This result was not favorable for Persepolis, and their chances of winning the championship decreased again, but their unbeaten streak reached 16 matches, tying them with Esteghlal's record in the 15th Premier League. The referee, Touraj Haqverdi, did not send anyone off but issued yellow cards to Rezaeian, Taremi, and Bengar from Persepolis, as well as Cesar, Khalilzadeh, and Ishoory from Tractor. In Persepolis's lineup were Sosha Makani, Mohsen Bengar, Luka Maric, Mohammad Ansari, Ramin Rezaeian, Ahmad Nourallahi, Farshad Ahmadzadeh, Omid Alishah (70; Milad Kamandani), Ali Alipour, Mehdi Taremi, and Mohsen Muslim (84; Mehrdad Kafshgari). For Tractor, Mohammad Reza Akhbari, Mohammad Iranpourian, Shoja Khalilzadeh, Carlos, Sina Ishoory, Bakhtiar Rahmani, Soroush Rafiei, Farzad Hatami, Augusto Cesar (Shahin Saghebi), Mehdi Kiani, and Saeed Aghaei (Khalid Shafiei) played. Branko Ivankovic said after the match: 'Mistakes happen in every game that the opponent can take advantage of. Like the mistake in the final minutes where we were close to losing, but other than that, the opponent had no chances.' Branko commented on the grenade throwing from Persepolis fans' section, saying: 'I have been physically present in Iran for six years, but I have only seen this twice, the first time in the national team match against North Korea and the second time now. It is not a commendable act, although such incidents happen everywhere in the world.' Amir Ghalenoee also told reporters: 'Football justice was not served today. Persepolis has over 10 goal opportunities in every game, but as you saw, they could not do anything in today's match.' The Tractor coach also spoke about the grenade throwing, saying: 'Do you think this behavior is good? They insulted us for ninety minutes; it was not a good thing in front of FIFA's security group. It seems that the blinding of an officer in previous years has not been a lesson.' The Minister of Sports was also present at Azadi Stadium. Mahmoud Goudarzi said at the end of the match that it was a beautiful competition and he enjoyed watching the match.