‘Lack of experience’ cost Nassaji in ACL debut, Rahmati says
Nassaji Mazandaran head coach Seyyed Mahdi Rahmati said the “lack of experience” in the AFC Champions League kept the Iranian top-flight side from progressing to the knockout phase of the competition.
Nassaji walked away with a 2-0 victory over Indian club Mumbai city at Tehran’s Azadi Stadium on Tuesday – in what was a dead-rubber in Group D, with Saudi giant Al Hilal and Uzbekistan’s Navbahor having already secured a top-two finish in the table with one game to spare.
Mohammadreza Azadi bagged his fourth goal in the group stage, firing home from a tight angle in the 14th minute, before center-back Halen Nongtdu’s back pass to the keeper found the back of his own net on the half-hour mark in a repeat of the result in September’s reverse fixture.
The northern Iranian club had to finish the game with 10 men after Amir-Mahdi Janmaleki received his marching orders for a reckless challenge midway through the second half.
“We’ve played five games in the group and went down to 10 men in three of them. Every red card has a two-match suspension, which cost us dearly,” Rahmati said after the game, adding: “What my team needed in this competition was the experience. We deeply suffered from the players’ naivety as we didn’t get the results we wanted.”
Nassaji’s Amirmohammad Houshmand was sent off in the first half of the 3-0 home defeat against Al Hilal, though Rahmati said Saber Hardani’s 52nd-minute dismissal – for two bookable offences – in the 2-1 defeat at Navbahor on on Matchday Three proved even more costly for his side.
“I truly believed in myself and my team as being capable to qualify from the group, but our descent started in the first game against Navbahor. We were in front when we lost two players to injuries and then had one red-carded. The team had to play with 10 men for nearly 50 minutes in the vociferous atmosphere [of the Markaziy Stadion],” said Rahmati, whose team was left heartbroken by Mehrdad Abdi’s own goal deep into stoppage time against the Uzbek club in October.
“We would have had a chance to progress if we had left the pitch with a point against Navbahor, but the defeat increased ty pressure on us. We have a short-handed squad and were involved in hectic schedule [in recent months],” added the Iranian.
“I still believe six points so far has been quite an achievement for our young team.”
Nassaji, second from bottom in the Iranian league table, will finish its debut campaign at the Asian elite clubs’ competition with a visit to Riyadh to take on Al Hilal on Monday.
Brazilian Malcom and Saudi international Salem Al-Dawsari found the net late in the second half to steer Al Hilal to a 2-0 win at Navbahor on Tuesday, helping the four-time champion move three points clear on top of the group standing.
Navbahor – on 10 points – remains in pole position to book a last-16 berth as one of the three best runners-up across the five West Zone groups.