Victory of Esteghlal Tehran and Esteghlal Khuzestan in the AFC Champions League

In the second round of the group stage of the AFC Champions League, Esteghlal Tehran and Esteghlal Khuzestan achieved victories against their opponents. Esteghlal faced Al-Taawoun from Saudi Arabia at Sultan Qaboos Stadium and won 3-0. This result led to all four teams in the group having one win and one loss, each with three points. Kaveh Rezaei scored the first goal in the first minute of the match. Mohsen Karimi and Leandro Padovani added two more goals, securing a 3-0 victory for the Tehran team. The lineup for Esteghlal included Mehdi Rahmati, Padovani, Robson Janoario, Khosro Heydari (Ali Ghorbani), Milad Zakipour, Omid Ebrahimi, Omid Noorafkan, Kaveh Rezaei, Jaber Ansari (Farshid Esmaeili), Mohsen Karimi (Behnam Barzai), and Voria Ghafouri. In another match of this group, Lokomotiv Tashkent triumphed over Al-Ahli from the UAE with a score of 2-0. Lokomotiv will be Esteghlal's next opponent in a match that will take place at Azadi Stadium. Alireza Mansourian, the head coach of Esteghlal, stated after the match: 'Our focus was on not conceding a goal, and when we scored, we knew their number 19 player was dangerous and we tried to keep him out of the game. Even though we won 3-0, it was a hard-fought result.' Esteghlal Khuzestan, another representative of Iranian football, also emerged victorious after defeating Al-Jazira, the leader of the UAE league, 1-0 at their home ground. Alois Nanga scored the only goal in the second minute, allowing Esteghlal Khuzestan to top the group with six points. Lekhwiya from Qatar and Al-Fateh from Saudi Arabia drew 2-2, placing Lekhwiya in second place with four points, and they will be Esteghlal Khuzestan's next opponent in Ahvaz. The lineup for Esteghlal Khuzestan included Vahid Sheikh-Vaisi, Mohammad Tayebi, Abolfazl Alaei, Daniel Mahini, Peyman Shirzadi, Farshad Salarvand, Mehdi Momeni (Salman Bahrani), Ali-Asghar Ashouri, Hassan Beit Saeed, Alois Nanga, and Arash Afshin (Aqil Kabbi). Siros Pourmousavi, the head coach of Esteghlal Khuzestan, mentioned in the press conference after the game: 'Two good players of the opponent were on the bench, and they may have underestimated us. We have six points, but there is no guarantee for our advancement.' On Tuesday, Zob Ahan Isfahan will face Al-Ahli from Saudi Arabia in Muscat, and Persepolis will compete against Al-Wahda in the UAE.