Persepolis Suffers Tenth Defeat in Premier League

The 22nd week of the Iranian Premier League concluded with Naft Tehran at the top of the table. In the most crucial match of the week, Tractor Sazi Tabriz overcame Persepolis, climbing to second place, while Naft secured the top position with a victory against Gostaresh. Persepolis, which has performed well in the AFC Champions League, faced its tenth defeat in the Premier League. Among the 16 teams in the league, only Railways Club is at the bottom, having lost more matches than Persepolis. Tractor Sazi managed to defeat its guest with a goal from Shahin Saqebi in the 62nd minute. Persepolis fielded a lineup including Sosha Makani, Babak Hatami, Mohsen Bengar, Michael Omana, Mehdi Jafarpoor, Fernando Gabriel, Mohammad Nouri, Mehrdad Kafshgari, Tadeu, Omid Alishah, and Payam Sadeghian. Tractor Sazi also repeated its first-round victory with players like Hamid Lak, Ahmad Kamdar, Ando Timourian, Luciano Edinho, Khaled Shafiei, Saman Nariman Jahan, Saeed Aghaei, Fardin Abedini, Mirehani Hashemi, Shahin Saqebi, and Farshad Ahmadzadeh. Tony Oliveira, the head coach of Tractor Sazi, commented on Hamid Derakhshan's remarks about the fatigue of Persepolis players due to the AFC Champions League, stating: 'If they played against Bunyodkor on Tuesday, we faced Al Ahli on Wednesday. So they had one more day of rest than us.' The match between Naft Tehran and Gostaresh Tabriz ended with a 2-1 victory for Naft at Takhti Stadium. Gostaresh took the lead with a penalty goal from Leonardo Pimenta in the first half. Ali Ghorbani and Amir Arslan Motahari managed to turn the result in favor of their team in the second half, allowing Alireza Mansourian's students to return to the top of the table. After his team's victory, Alireza Mansourian sarcastically noted the absence of spectators at the stadium, saying: 'I think the number of journalists present at the press conference was significantly higher than the number of spectators! Thank you for attending this spectator-less game at the stadium.' The match between Foolad Khuzestan and Paykan Tehran also ended in a goalless draw after 90 minutes, keeping Foolad in fifth place with continued poor results.