ACL Joy As Abdi Passes Persepolis Baton To Ivankovic

AFC – TEHRAN, Persepolis interim coach Hossein Abdi declared himself delighted with his team after seeing them hand Saudi Arabia’s Al Nassr a 1-0 defeat at the Azadi Stadium on Wednesday to go clear at the top of Group A of the AFC Champions League.

Mehdi Taremi scored the only goal of the game in the 61st minute from the penalty spot to take the Tehran Reds to nine points from four games, two points clear of second-placed Lekhwiya and a further two ahead of Al Nassr.

Abdi, who stepped in to replace Hamid Derakshan after he parted company with Persepolis last week, will be replaced by former Iran head coach Branko Ivankovic for the next round of matches, but was able to stand down having guided the team to victory.

“I would like to thank everyone for their support,” said Abidi (pictured). “I did my best in the last few days to motivate the players for the match.

“Although we lost our focus in some parts of the game, we finally won the game and that’s what makes me one of the happiest men in the world.”

Persepolis now know victory over Lekhwiya in Doha in their next game on April 22 will take them into the Round of 16 in May while Al Nassr are also still in contention for a place in the next phase of the competition.

“I cannot call today’s match a football game,” said the Saudi side’s Uruguayan coach Jorge Da Silva, whose team travel to Uzbekistan to meet Bunyodkor on Matchday Five.

“Although the atmosphere of the match today wasn’t like a football game, Persepolis are a good team and I congratulate them for the victory.

“Persepolis will surely make it to the next round, but we are trying to be the team that qualifies together with Persepolis.”