Ghalenoei rues Esteghlal’s bad luck

AFC – TEHRAN, Esteghlal coach Amir Ghalenoei was left to rue on what he described as one of the worst night of his life after the Iranian champions were eliminated by FC Seoul in the AFC Champions League semi-finals on Wednesday.

Needing to overturn a two-goal deficit from the first leg against the Korean side, Esteghlal found themselves with more work to do when a delightful chip by captain Ha Dae-sung late in the opening half extended FC Seoul’s advantage.

Esteghlal cut the deficit with strikes by Jlloyd Samuel and Mohammad Ghazi but Kim Jin-kyu converted a penalty for the visitors 10 minutes from the end to earn FC Seoul a 4-2 aggregate win and a place in the final against Chinese double winners Guangzhou Evergrandes.

“It was one of the worst nights of my life and I insist ability-wise that we deserved to play in the final,” said Ghalenoei.

“All my players devoted themselves to playing well and if we had been luckier, we could now take on Guangzhou Evergrande in the final.

“We were better in defence compared to the first leg, but we still have some weaknesses which we should improve on in the future.”

According to Ghalenoei, Ha’s opening goal was crucial to the final outcome.

“We fell behind against the run of the play seven minutes before the break. If we hadn’t conceded such a goal, we could have taken the lead and scored even more goals after that,” he said.

“We have minimised our problems in defence but there is still more work to do to eradicate our mistakes.
“I also have to make some changes in our system so that we perform with a different playing style in our domestic league,” he added.