Persepolis Advances in Iran's Football Cup

In the continuation of the Iran Football Cup, Persepolis defeated Naft Tehran with two goals to advance to the Round of 16. After being eliminated from the AFC Champions League, Persepolis is focusing entirely on domestic competitions. They succeeded in overcoming Naft Tehran, the previous season's cup champion. With their qualification to the top sixteen teams, they will face the first division team Badran Tehran. Approximately 15,000 spectators watched the match between Persepolis and Naft at Azadi Stadium, where Hamid Derakhshan, a former player and coach of Persepolis, resisted with his team for 73 minutes. A cross from Amiriy from the right and the impact of Alipour allowed the ball to reach Monsha at the second post, who, in the absence of the top scorer Taremi, broke the deadlock for Naft's goal. In the 85th minute, Alipour scored a penalty against Farahani's movement into the Naft goal, ensuring his team's advancement in regular time. The players of Persepolis in this match were Alireza Beiranvand, Seyed Jalal Hosseini (Sadegh Moharrami), Shoja Khalilzadeh, Hossein Mahini, Mohammad Ansari, Kamal Kamyabinia, Mohsen Rabiee-Khah (Siamak Nemati), Bashar Resan, Vahid Amiri, Ali Alipour, and Godwin Mensah (Shayan Mosalahi). In Naft Tehran's initial lineup were Milad Farahani, Mohsen Bengar, Ahmad Al-Naeimeh, Amirhossein Fashangchi, Farid Mohammadzadeh, Saman Aghazamani, Farshad Hashemi, Ali Ezati, Hashem Beikzadeh, Pouya Amini, and Eisa Al-Kathir. Among them, Bengar, along with Fashangchi and Aghazamani, had previously played for Persepolis. Conversely, Beiranvand, Amiri, Hosseini, and Kamyabinia have also been members of Naft. Three encounters between Persepolis and Naft Tehran in the 17th season resulted in three victories and no goals conceded for the Reds: the Super Cup, the first leg of the Premier League, and then the Iran Cup. In the 91st minute, Eisa Al-Kathir could have broken this spell but hit the crossbar with the penalty awarded to Naft Tehran.