Mansourian Regrets Naft’s Winning Margin Not Greater

AFC – TEHRAN, Naft Tehran coach Alireza Mansourian was left ruing his side’s inability to kill off their AFC Champions League Round of 16 match-up with Saudi Arabia’s Al Ahli on Wednesday, despite picking up a 1-0 win.

The Iranians go into the second leg in Jeddah in a week’s time with a slim advantage after Gholamreza Rezaei scored the only goal of the game 11 minutes before the end of the first half.

Naft were good value for the victory and could have added to their tally and their inability to do so left the former Iran national team midfielder frustrated despite the win.

“I’m happy with the result but not my player’s performance in the second half,” said Mansourian (pictured). “Iman Mobali and Arsalan Motahari should have converted their chances so we could go to Riyadh with more goals.”

Mobali went closest to giving Naft a second goal when, 12 minutes from time, he saw his long-range free kick pushed onto the woodwork by Al Ahli goalkeeper Abdullah Al Muaiouf.

That was one of several opportunities Naft missed, but the result still pleased Mansourian after his side closed out the Iran league for the year at the weekend with a tense 3-3 draw with Tractorsazi.

“After that tough match against Tractorsazi in the final round of the Iran league we had little time to recover, but my players tried their best to win this match,” said the coach.

“We have to prepare for the second leg in Saudi Arabia which definitely will be a very tough match. We have to work on our opponent’s strengths and weaknesses while we will also have some changes.

“The AFC Champions League matches are at a higher level than Iran league games because Asia’s best teams take part in it and the competition is very well organized, while there are a couple of star players in each team.”