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Piroozi, Al Nasr register wins

Iran’s Piroozi Athletic cruised to a convincing 3-1 victory over hosts UAE’s Al Shabab at Maktoum bin Rashid Stadium here on Tuesday night to make it into the knockout stage of the AFC Champions League as Al Shabab have bowed out of the group.

In Doha, Diane and Humaid Abbas reversed Al Nasr’s 0-1 deficit into a narrow 2-1 win over Lekhwiya, but both teams finished third and fourth and were knocked out of the competition.

Al Ahli of Saudi Arabia and Foolad Sepahan from Iran will represent the group in the second stage of the tournament.

The two sides played to a 1-1 draw in the first half. Essa Mohammed broke the deadlock in the 8^th minute with a long range free kick from nearly 35 yards and the Libyan pro Eamon Zayed headed home the equaliser for the Iranians towards the 43^rd minute of the first half.

This was also the result before the interval.

Al Shabab Brazilian coach Paulo Bonamigo started the game with a blend between experience and youth.

Debutants Ali Hamdan, Hassan Ebrahim, Fahad Hassan, Ibrahim Abdulla and Sami Anbar made their first appearance with the senior team and they were supplemented with experienced elements like Essa Mohammed, Haydarov and Adel Abdulla.

And despite the many remarks on the team’s deployment, the boys in green were able to show the best of them.

Piroozi managed to set their pace right from on the outset thanks to the hard work of the Iranian veteran Ali Karimi who did everything right to dominate the midfield. Javad kazemian caused a real headache for Al Shabab defenders, but the final touch was always missing.

However, although Al Shabab defenders were able to stop Piroozi’s greedy strikers, the less experienced players did not make their presence felt upfront.

No real threat was posed and their moves were shy, immature and incomplete. The only goal which they scored came from a freekick from the centre of the pitch; otherwise, they did nothing to operate within the dangerous zone of the Iranian outfit.

Ali Karimi successfully neutralised Al Shabab’s midfielder Haidarov and helped his side to put Al Shabab defenders under continuous pressure and they were forced to make mistakes in front of the box.

Towards the 53^rd minute, Karimi was fouled at the mouth of the box and Piroozi’s left defender Mehrdad Pooladi fired home a perfect overhead to make it 2-1 for the visitors.

TEAMS

Al Shabab Al Arabi (UAE): 30 - Ismail Jumaa (GK) 2 - Essa Mohammed 33 - Ali Hamdan Juma Qassim 6 - Hasan Ibrahim 7 - Haydarov Azizbek 12 - Fahad Hassan 13 - Ibrahim Abdulla 14 - Sami Anbar 20 - Nasser Masoud 21 - Adel Abaas Abdullah 9 - Ali Sanad

Piroozi Athletic (Iran): 1 - Asmir Avdukic(GK) 13 - Shic Rezaei Khonakdar 26 - Hamid Ali asgari 3 - Mehrdad Pooladi 8 - Ali Karimi 14 - Mohammad Nouri 15 - Saman Aghazamani (Ebrahim Shakori(34’) 20 - Alireza Nour Mohammadi 10 - Gholam Reza Rezaei 12 - Eamon Zayed 17 -Javad Kazemian.