Esteghlal, Persepolis and Tractor victorious
Persianfootball.com – TEHRAN, Both Tehran giants and Tractor Sazi Tabriz came out victorious from their Persian Gulf League round three matches, while Sepahan Esfahan had to settle with a point against Gostaresh Foolad in Tabriz.
On Tuesday the newly promoted team took a surprising seventh minute lead and looked like winning until injury time, when Mohammad Gholami’s second goal of the season secured a more than just deserved point for Sepahan, who still top the table with seven points.
Reigning champions Esteghlal had a tougher job in Shiraz than many would have expected as well, when Fajr Sepasi cancelled out goals from Javad Nekounam and Mohammad Ghazi, before Hanif Omranzadeh and veteran Farhad Majidi secured Esteghlal’s second win of the season.
Ansarifard shines, Nilson again keeps a clean sheet.
Also on Tuesday Tractor Sazi finally secured their first victory of the season thanks to a splendid Karim Ansarifard, who first beautifully assisted Mohsen Rabikhah’s and Mohammad Ebrahimi’s first half goals versus Zob Ahan in Esfahan.
But Sepehr Heydari and Mehdi Rajabzadeh equalized the match before veteran Ali Karimi benefitted from a defensive blunder before showing he has not lost his coolness and unique technique when scoring the visitor’s third goal from close range.
Ansarifard then crowned his great performance with a left-footed shot from inside the area to make it 4-2.
On Wednesday Persepolis prolonged their good start into the season with a 2-0 win over Mes Kerman in Tehran’s Azadi stadium and still have to concede a goal since Ali Daei’s return.
Payam Sadeghian’s shot from the edge of the box and Ghasem Dehnavi’s header to a Hossein Mahini freekick put the reds in second position of the ranking.
Below come the results of PGL round 3 and a video of all goals from PFDC TV.
Damash GLN 1 – 1 Naft TEH
Esteghlal KHU 0 – 0 Saipa ALB
Fajr Sepasi SHZ 2 – 4 Esteghlal TEH
Gostaresh TBZ 1 – 1 Sepahan ESF
Rahahan RAY 0 – 0 Malavan ANZ
Saba QOM 0 – 1 Foolad KHU
Zobahan ESF 2 – 4 Teraktor TBZ
Perspolis TEH 2 – 0 Mes KRM