Bonacic laments game-changing red card

GOAL – ESFAHAN, Sepahan’s Croatian coach Luka Bonacic was left to bemoan teenager Akbar Imani’s second-half red card as his side held on for a 1-0 win over Al Sadd in Wednesday’s Asian Champions League quarter-final first leg in Isfahan.

Omad Ebrahimi had fired Sepahan into an early lead with the hosts dominating the first-half, before 19-year-old saw red for a second bookable offence early in the second stanza.

Sepahan subsequently sat back as they struggling with their numerical disadvantage and Bonacic rued the sending off from his enthusiastic youngster.

“The game had two different parts for us. Before we had Imani sent-off, we were the better side on the pitch but after we were reduced to 10 men, we concentrated more on keeping hold of our lead until the end of the game,” Bonacic told reporters after the game.

“In the last 30 minutes we could change some players but I had to be cautious about that as I was concerned about Jalal Hosseini’s injury. We couldn’t have lost him. I’m happy with the result anyway.”

On his side’s failure to capitalise on their first-half domination, Bonacic added: “I agree that we are still having difficulties up front.

“This is a technical issue that we should deal with for our coming games. Some players have not reached their full readiness so far, we should try to work out our scoring problems in the next training sessions.”

Al Sadd’s Uruguayan coach Jorge Fossati was disappointed with his side’s overall performance but said they remained in the tie.

“Obviously, I’m not content with the result but you know this game does not determine who advances in the tournament,” he said.

“So we still have another game to make up for things and find a way through to the last eight.”