Persepolis and Naft Advance in the AFC Champions League

On the last day of the group stage of the AFC Champions League, Persepolis defeated Bunyodkor of Uzbekistan, while Naft lost to Al Ain of the UAE. However, both Iranian representatives advanced to the Round of 16 to face two clubs from Saudi Arabia. Naft suffered a heavy defeat against Al Ain, losing 3-0, but the failure of Pakhtakor of Uzbekistan in a simultaneous match allowed Alireza Mansourian's team to progress to the next round. In the match between Al Ain and Naft, Omar Abdulrahman, the technical star of UAE football, scored along with Asamoah Gyan and Kambou Ekoko for Al Ain. The lineup for Naft Tehran included Alireza Beiranvand, Mohammad Amin Haj Mohammad, Vahid Hamdinejad, Saeed Lotfi, Leandro Padovani, Alireza Izati, Kamal Kamyabinia (Hossein Ebrahimi), Abbas Bouazar, Iman Mobali (Arash Rezavand), Vahid Amiri, and Amir Arslan Motahari (Gholamreza Razayi). In another match of this group, Pakhtakor hosted Al Shabab of Saudi Arabia, which ended with a 2-0 victory for the Saudi team. Although Al Shabab had no chance of advancing, their fair play allowed the Iranian representative to move on. Al Ain topped the group with 12 points, while Naft Tehran advanced as the second team with 8 points and will face Al Ahli of Saudi Arabia in the knockout stage, which had eliminated Tractor Sazi from the competition. Persepolis, on a day when tickets were not sold for their match, managed to defeat Bunyodkor 2-1 in a packed Azadi Stadium. The Reds, who were the most-watched team in Asia during the group stage, will face their traditional rival in Asia, Al Hilal of Saudi Arabia, in the next round. The match between Persepolis and Bunyodkor saw no goals in the first half. Persepolis was awarded a penalty in the 47th minute due to a foul by the Bunyodkor goalkeeper on Mehdi Taremi, which Mohammad Noori converted into a goal. Fifteen minutes later, Rashidov entered the penalty area and scored the equalizer. The equal score lasted only 10 minutes, as Ahmad Nourallah's brilliance disrupted the focus of the Bunyodkor defense, leading to an own goal by the Uzbek defender. With this victory, Persepolis reached 12 points and advanced as the second team from Group A. The top of the table went to Lekhwiya of Qatar, which defeated Al Nassr of Saudi Arabia in a simultaneous match. The Persepolis lineup included Sosha Makani, Michael Omaniya, Alireza Noor Mohammadi, Hamidreza Ali Asgari, Babak Hatami, Mohammad Noori, Mehrdad Kafshgari, Fernando Gabriel (Hadi Norouzi), Omid Alishah (Reza Khalighi Far), Ahmad Nourallah and Mehdi Taremi (Alireza Alipour). After the match, Branko Ivankovic told reporters, "My players were exhausted to the point of death, but the spectators gave them strength. Winning is very beautiful, and winning in this way makes me satisfied." The Persepolis coach discussed plans for the match against Al Hilal, stating, "We have 24 hours to celebrate, and tomorrow we will prepare for the match against Gostaresh. Do not forget that before the match with Al Hilal, we have a big game against Esteghlal."