Tehran's Independence Draw Leads to Khuzestan's Independence Top Position

While the top of the Iranian Premier League table has frequently changed hands between Tehran's Independence and Khuzestan, at the end of the twenty-fifth week, this did not happen, allowing the blue-clad Khuzestan team to remain at the top. Tehran's Independence settled for a goalless draw against Sepahan Isfahan at Azadi Stadium, placing them second due to goal difference, equal with Persepolis. Before the match, the disagreement and withdrawal of Moharram Navidkia from his team indicated the continuation of a crisis at Sepahan. Despite this, Sepahan, who is not in a good position in the table, created significantly better opportunities. Mehdi Rahmati, Khosrow Heydari, Hanif Omran Zadeh, Hrayr Mgooyan, Meysam Majidi, Farshid Esmaeili (Omid Noorafkan), Omid Ebrahimi, Jaber Ansari (Mehdi Momeni), Adel Sheikhi, Yaqoub Karimi (Arash Borhani), and Sajad Shahbazzadeh were the players who recorded Independence's twelfth draw of the season. For Sepahan, Rahman Ahmadi, Abdollah Karami, Leonardo Padovani, Mohammad Roshandel, Saeed Ghaedi Farfar (Habib Gardani), Hossein Fazeli, Fozail Mousayev, Ali Karimi, Milad Sarlak, Mohammad Reza Khalatbari (Amin Manouchehri), and Luciano Pereira (Resoul Navidkia) took the field. Sepahan's head coach stated after the match: 'The situation I endured, even a horse could not bear it. I expect the club officials to support me. Otherwise, they should tell me to go home.' Igor Stimac expressed his grievances to reporters, saying, 'A plan was designed in the team for us to lose to Independence today and for me to be dismissed from the team.' A meeting on Tuesday with Sepahan officials is expected to decide whether to continue or terminate Stimac's contract. Provez Mazlumi in the press conference acknowledged: 'I admit we played cautiously. Unfortunately, Sepahan's tight defense also resulted in fewer opportunities for us, but in the derby, we will witness a different situation.' The head coach of Independence reminded: 'My team has been at the top of the table for 24 weeks, but it is being attacked. I do not know the reason. Rest assured we will reclaim the top of the table, but I do not accept these criticisms. A narrative has been created that says Independence does not play well, while our rival does not play well but gets results, and everyone praises them.' In another match that was crucial for determining the situation at the top of the table, Zob Ahan faced Tractor Sazi at Fooladshahr Stadium. In the second half, Zob Ahan was awarded a penalty in the 61st minute, and Mehdi Rajabzadeh managed to put his team ahead, but eight minutes later, Bakhtiar Rahmani, who had just entered the field, scored the equalizer with a beautiful free kick. As it seemed the match would end in a draw, in the 86th minute, Khaled Shafiei's header, who also came on as a substitute, allowed Tractor Sazi to return to Tabriz with three points. Tractor Sazi reached 41 points and, with a better goal difference than Naft, climbed to fourth place in the table. Zob Ahan, with 38 points, fell to sixth place.