Daei downplays Piroozi’s prospects

AFC – TEHRAN, Piroozi coach Ali Daei played down his team’s hopes of progressing to the knockout stage of the 2011 AFC Champions League despite staying in the hunt with a 3-2 win over Group C leaders Al Ittihad*.

The Tehran-based club were on course for their first win of a disappointing campaign inside 20 minutes when Hamidreza Aliasgari and Shpejtim Arifi both found the target.

Al Ittihad did pull a goal back through Mohammed Al Rashed’s header but Aliasgari’s second after 70 minutes sealed the points and ensured that Sekou Berthe’s stoppage-time own goal proved only a consolation.

The win meant Piroozi remain three points behind second-placed Bunyodkor, who won by the same scoreline against Al Wahda, but their hopes of progressing are undermined by an inferior goal difference*.

Despite facing winless Al Wahda away in their final game, former Iran international striker Daei is not getting carried away over his side’s chances.

“If we had played better against Bunyodkor and Al Wahda in Tehran then we would be in a better position than we are – we are regretting our missed chances,” he said.

“However, this is football. I hope we can get good results for the rest of the season.

“Although we have had very good chances to be near the top we have not been able to take advantage of them.

“It has been a good experience for both me and the players.”

Daei praised his players for inflicting a first defeat of the competition on Al Ittihad, who had already qualified.

“We were the better side today and started very well,” Daei added.

“I am very satisfied with my team’s defensive performance even though we conceded from two set-pieces.

“Al Ittihad are a very good team and their first goal caused us to lose our concentration for sometime. However we managed to regain control of the game.

Al Ittihad boss Toni admitted his side were always facing an uphill target after conceding twice so early, but denied he had underestimated his rivals.

He also refused to blame the team’s late arrival in Tehran last night for their poor beginning, after a delayed flight saw them miss the pre-game press conference and threw out their plans to train before the game.

“First of all I have to express my apologies for my absence last night, which was due to the airplane’s late arrival to Tehran,” the Portuguese tactician said.

“We knew everything about Piroozi and they didn’t surprise us at all with their performance. They have quick players and can counter-attack very well.

“In games like this when you concede two early goals, the situation will become hard for you. We couldn’t get ourselves into the game.

“We knew Piroozi has nothing to lose today and that they would go all out for the three points. I have said that this is a hard group and all our opponents are tough.

“I believe we could have played better, but I should congratulate Piroozi for their win.”

Toni was not willing to go into detail about the reasons for his team’s late arrival the previous night, adding only: “I am only a head coach and I am not dealing with such matters.

“What I know is that we had planned to arrive in Tehran two hours before the pre-match press conference in order to be present for the conference and have a training session.

“But we couldn’t arrive on time because of some problems.”

* Note by PFDC: Due to AFC CL rules stating direct duel being the tiebreaker number one in case of equal points, Persepolis are already certainly out of the race for a playoff ticket, having lost the directl duel against Bunyodkor.