Ebrahimzadeh: Stamina sealed Mes success

AFC – ESFAHAN, Coach Mansour Ebrahimzadeh believes his players’ superior stamina proved decisive as a late Igor header at Foolad Shahr Stadium on Wednesday was enough to send Zob Ahan through to the quarter-finals of the AFC Champions League at the expense of 10-man Mes Kerman.

The visitors faced an uphill task after Abolghasem Dehnavi was sent off for a second bookable offence in first-half stoppage time and through they enjoyed the majority of possession throughout the second half, Igor’s 84th minute goal settled the encounter in favour of Zob Aahan.

“My players deserve this victory,” said Ebrahimzadeh. “This was a difficult game but we finally managed to win the match.

“I have a strategy for the knock-out matches and that is being careful not to concede and then try to score later on in the game.

“During the first half, we could have scored from free kicks, but we didn’t use our opportunities very well. I should confess that at times, Mes could have taken the lead, but we didn’t allow them to do so.

“Our tactic was to make the Mes players run a lot throughout the game, and it brought about their exhaustion especially at the end of the game.”

Mes coach Luka Bonacic felt his side’s failure to finish the chances they had in the first half ultimately proved their undoing.

“They were mainly hitting us with counter attacks and I have to confess that we had a weak attack,” said the Croat.

“We had many plans for the game but with one player less on the field we couldn’t do what we wanted.

“Zob Ahan did not create many scoring opportunities and devised their attacks mainly during the final minutes of the game. I believe we should have won the game 3-0 in the first half, since we missed many chances before the break.

Bonacic admitted that following the dismissal of Dehnavi he had hoped his players could have got to the end of extra time, confident his side would come out on top in the penalty shoot-out.

“I’d like to congratulate Zob Ahan for their progression to the next round of the AFC Champions League,” he added.
“Before the game, I’d said that I didn’t want the game to be decided by penalty kicks, but after my player got sent off, I did prefer to see the two teams being separated by the penalties.

“My players lack international experience and that was why we lost to our rivals today. We played really well at the games we played at home, but we lost all four games we played away from our home stadium and today’s loss was one of those defeats.”