Persian Gulf Pro League roundup:
Title favorites relishing perfect start to new campaign
There will surely be a lot of twists and turns until the end of the new season but Persepolis, Sepahan, Esteghlal seem to have already established a three-horse race for the Persian Gulf Pro League crown.
The top three from the previous campaign walked away with a second victory in as many games while Tractor, which had high hopes of an impressive start after last season’s fourth-spot finish as well as a busy transfer window, appears to be far from a finished article.
In the highly-anticipated fixture in Tabriz, another howler by new Tractor goalkeeper Hossein Pourhamidi – following the blunder in the 3-1 defeat at Sepahan – left Saeed Sadeqi facing an empty net before the Persepolis winger rolled home to silence the crowd at the full-packed Yadegar-e Imam Stadium late in the first half.
Both sides hit the woodwork in the second period but the result remained intact as the defending champion left Tabriz with a massive 1-0 triumph on Wednesday.
Yahya Golmohammadi’s Reds are yet to drop points in the league since the home defeat against Sepahan in March, enjoying a remarkable run of 12 successive league and cup wins.
Later in the day, second-half strikes by Morteza Asadi and Shahriyar Moghanlou steered Sepahan to a 2-0 win at Zob Ahan in the Isfahan derby.
Having joined from Tractor in the summer, Asadi got Sepahan off the mark from the spot in the 52nd minute after Moghanlou went down in the box by Arash Qaderi.
Moghanlou then rounded off a sublime counterattack when his curling effort from the edge of the box found the bottom corner.
Sepahan fans, who saw their team miss out on the title by a single point last term, will be desperate to celebrate a first league trophy since 2015 come the end of the season.
On Thursday, Esteghlal had to wait 80 minutes to break the deadlock against Mehdi Tartar’s brave Malavan side in Tehran’s Azadi Stadium when center-back Mohammad-Hossein Moradmand headed home Mehdi Mehdipour’s corner kick.
New manager Javad Nekounam had skipper Hossein Hosseini to thank for keeping him on a winning start to life on the Blues bench as Esteghlal keeper denied Mehran Ahmadi an opener from the spot with seven minutes into the contest.
Elsewhere in the league, Paykan and Golgohar Sirjan shared the spoils in a goalless stalemate in Tehran on Tuesday, while Mehran Mousavi’s header with nine minutes left on the clock secured a 1-0 home victory for Iralco against newly-promoted Esteghlal Khuzestan.
Shams Azar, which also won promotion last season, left the pitch empty-handed in a first top-flight home game in the history of the club in Qazvin, falling to 2-1 defeat against Havadar.
Former Esteghlal players Babak Moradi and Amin Qasseminejad were on the scoresheet for the visiting side before Rahman Jafari bagged a late consolation for the host.
Mes Rafsanjan and Nassaji Mazandaran played to a 1-1 draw in Rafsanjan, with Mohammadreza Azadi’s first-half goal for Nassaji cancelled out by Hassan Jafari four minutes after the interval.
The pressure is on for Foolad Khuzestan manager Alireza Mansourian after his side suffered a second consecutive defeat in the new season – a 2-1 loss to San’at Naft Abadan at the Foolad Arena.
San’at skipper Taleb Rikani gave his side the lead with a trademark left-foot effort from behind the box in the 14th minute.
Things went from bad to worse for Foolad when Sina Shah-Abbasi was shown his marching orders for a second bookable offense right before the break and Hossein Shanani’s composed finish doubled the lead for San’at in the 50th minute.
Mohammad Abbaszadeh pulled one back for the home side with five minutes from normal time but it proved to be too little too late as Abdollah Veisi’s men came out on top in the southern Iranian derby.