Persian Gulf Pro League roundup:
Sepahan, Persepolis rebound to lead tight title race at midseason
Sepahan and Persepolis have bounced back from slow starts to the season to lead a tightly contested title race as the Persian Gulf Pro League reached its halfway point on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Esteghlal and defending champions Tractor – the other two members of the Iranian top flight’s old guard – have struggled for consistency through 15 matchdays, with Chadormalou emerging as the surprise package in fourth place.
There will still be plenty to play for when the domestic league resumes on January 16, with the top eight teams separated by just nine points.
Sepahan’s 2-1 home defeat to Esteghlal on Thursday – courtesy of former Sepahan player Esmaeil Qolizadeh’s 92nd-minute winner – marked only the third loss of the campaign for Moharram Navidkia’s side. Despite the setback, Sepahan remain top of the table with 30 points, two clear of second-placed Persepolis.
After managing just two points from their opening four games – including home defeats to Persepolis and Tractor – Sepahan went on a remarkable run of nine wins in 10 matches, conceding only once, prior to Thursday’s loss. That surge revived hopes of a first league title in 11 seasons.
Persepolis, meanwhile, endured a difficult start under new head coach Vahid Hashemian, who replaced Turkish coach Ismail Kartal in the summer for his first senior managerial role. A 1-0 victory over Sepahan on matchday two ended the Tehran Reds’ 1,335-day drought in the so-called ‘Iranian Clasico’, but it proved to be their only win in a seven-game stretch.
A 2-0 home victory over Zob Ahan in late September – following a 2-1 away defeat to Khaybar, Persepolis’s only league loss so far – did little to secure Hashemian’s future. The club hierarchy instead turned to former coach Osmar Loss Vieira to reverse the team’s fortunes.
Osmar, who guided Persepolis to the title as a caretaker midway through the 2023-24 season, has overseen a strong revival in his second spell. The Reds have won five of their last six matches and remain on course for an eighth league crown in a decade.
For Esteghlal and Portuguese head coach Ricardo Sá Pinto – also appointed for a second stint in the summer – the campaign has been marked by fluctuating performances across domestic and continental competitions. Esteghlal opened the season with an impressive 1-0 away win over Tractor in Tabriz, but followed it with a seven-game winless run, including a 7-1 humiliation at Al Wasl in their AFC Champions League Two opener.
A narrow 1-0 home victory over bottom-placed Mes Rafsanjan in mid-October sparked a brief recovery, with five wins in seven matches across all competitions. However, another four-game winless spell raised serious doubts over Sá Pinto’s suitability for the role before the win at Sepahan – which cut the gap to the summit to five points – eased the pressure on the Portuguese coach.
Esteghlal will now look to build momentum behind a formidable attacking trio of Jasir Asani, Munir El Haddadi, and Alireza Koushki as they begin the second half of the season at home to Tractor on January 17.
One point behind Esteghlal in fourth place is Chadormalou, enjoying a fairy-tale run in just its second season in the Iranian top flight. An unbeaten home record has underpinned Saeid Akhabari’s side’s impressive campaign, with all three of their defeats coming away to Golgohar, Tractor, and Sepahan.
Lack of conviction and clinical finishing have plagued Tractor’s title defense, leaving Dragan Skocic’s side fifth with 23 points. When Tractor claimed their maiden league title last season, a prolific attack – led by league top scorer Amirhossein Hosseinzadeh – proved decisive.
Hosseinzadeh has once again been in fine form, leading the scoring charts with eight goals, but Tractor have been held to seven goalless draws in 15 matches – including back-to-back stalemates against Shams Azar and Malavan in their last two games. Despite securing a place in the AFC Champions League Elite round of 16 with two games to spare, Skocic’s team has been drifting away from the domestic title race.