AFC Champions League Two:
Tractor fights back to beat Al Khaldiya
Tractor will take a 2-1 lead into the second leg of the AFC Champions League Two last-16 meeting with Bahrain’s Al Khaldiya in Tabriz next week after the Iranian top-flight side fought back to claim a narrow victory in Riffa on Tuesday.
Amirhossein Hosseinzadeh and Domagoj Drozdek found the net inside five minutes for the visitors to cancel out Mohamed Al Romaihi’s 48th-minute opener for the home side.
Gleison fed the ball to Mahdi Al Humaidan on the right and then the Brazilian, who had continued his run into the penalty area, stepped over the low cross to allow Al Romaihi tap in past Tractor keeper Alireza Beiranvand.
The host’s lead, however, was to last for just two minutes.
Tractor fullback Mohammad Naderi surged down the left flank and teed up Hosseinzadeh in the six-yard box, before the striker’s deft flick found the bottom corner – a seventh goal for the Iranian in the competition.
It took January signing Drozdek 10 minutes to make an impact after coming off the bench at halftime.
A fine piece of individual skill saw the Croatian flick the ball past Filip Ivanovic before curling home from the edge of the box to give the away side a well-deserved lead.
Tractor still had Beiranvand to thank for making a double save to deny Al Khaldiya a late equalizer, as the Iranian league leader remains on course for a maiden Asian silverware. Despite the victory, Croatian head coach Dragan Skocic was not pleased with his team’s performance.
“I congratulate my players and Tractor fans for this victory, but we were not close to our real level.
“I hope we do better in the second leg. In some games where the team is not performing well, it is important to win. We played against a strong team and our performance will definitely be better in the second leg,” said the former head coach of the Iranian national team.
Meanwhile, Skocic’s opposite number Ali Ashour was frustrated by the final outcome for his side, saying: “For me, it is important to play beautiful football but the most important thing is to achieve results. Everyone is sad and shocked by this result, as we prepared the players mentally because this match is the first half of the challenge.
“We have to recover and plan for the return match and it doesn’t matter that we have to play away from home,” said Ashour.
The two sides will square off in Tabriz’s Yadegar-e Imam Stadium on Tuesday.