Persepolis Eliminated from AFC Champions League

In the semifinals of the AFC Champions League, Persepolis of Iran drew 2-2 against Al-Hilal of Saudi Arabia, resulting in a total defeat of 6-2 over two legs. Persepolis scored the first goal with a header from Godwin Mensah, hoping to recover the first leg's deficit with three more goals. In the first half, the Omani referee awarded a penalty to Al-Hilal. Refereeing experts, in interviews with news agencies, deemed the penalty a mistake, arguing that Ansari's foul occurred outside the penalty area. Omar Khrbin, the Syrian striker, stepped up to take the penalty and equalized with a chip shot. Both teams scored in the second half, ending the match in a 2-2 draw. With this result, Al-Hilal advanced to the final. The political tension between the two countries prevents their sports teams from competing on each other's soil, which is why Persepolis hosted their Saudi rival at Sultan Qaboos Stadium in Muscat. The Persepolis lineup included Alireza Beiranvand, Seyed Jalal Hosseini, Shoja Khalilzadeh, Mohammad Ansari, Sadegh Moharrami, Kamal Kamyabinia, Mohsen Rabiei-Khahi, Mohsen Muslim (Bashar Resan), Vahid Amiri, Ali Alipour (Siamak Nemati), and Godwin Mensah. The standout player for the Reds was Mensah, who scored two goals and relieved the pressure from his team's fans. The first goal for Persepolis came from a cross by Vahid Amiri to Godwin Mensah, who scored with a powerful header. Following Ansari's penalty foul, Omar Khrbin scored the equalizer. In the 61st minute, Alipour assisted Mensah, who skillfully scored again to put Persepolis ahead. However, this lead was short-lived as Omar Khrbin capitalized on mistakes by Khalilzadeh and Moharrami to score again. The match ended in a draw. Al-Hilal has not lost any matches since the beginning of 2017 and hopes to maintain this trend to win the Asian championship. Ramon Diaz, the Argentine coach of Al-Hilal, has achieved 32 victories in 43 games with the team. In a press conference, he stated: 'We knew Persepolis would come to recover, so we tried to manage the game at a slower pace.' Branko Ivankovic also commented: 'In the first leg, Al-Hilal's first goal was scored from an offside position, and in the return leg, a ball outside the penalty area was called a penalty.' The Persepolis coach emphasized: 'When the referee is judging against you and makes you need more goals to advance, you won't have an easy game.'