ACL RD16 – 2nd Leg: Tractorsazi Tabriz 3-1 Al Nasr (4-5 Agg.) [VIDEO]

AFC – TABRIZ, Al Nasr scraped into their first ever AFC Champions League quarter-finals despite a 3-1 second-leg defeat to Iran’s Tractorasazi Tabriz in the last 16 on Tuesday as the UAE side edged a 5-4 aggregate win.

After a comprehensive 4-1 victory in the first leg in Dubai last week, Al Nasr broke the deadlock on 15 minutes at Yadegar Emam Stadium through Salem Saleh’s finish from close in.

But early second-half goals from Farzad Hatami and Mohammad Iranpourian put the home side 2-1 up with 30 minutes still to play. Hatami’s second on 73 minutes gave Tractorsazi and the packed stands in Tabriz real hope but Al Nasr managed to hold out.

“My special thanks to my players,” said Al Nasr coach Ivan Jovanovic. “As I said before the match, Tractorsazi are a very powerful team. In football, if you don’t deserve it you will not go through to the next round.

“We didn’t have a single match against Tractorsazi, we faced them in two games. Perhaps Tractorsazi attacked more during the games but we were the more effective team.”

Needing an early goal to reignite their chances of reaching the last eight, Tractorsazi came out the blocks firing and Hatami blazed wide on 11 minutes.

But the near-capacity crowd was silenced five minutes later when Al Nasr opened the scoring through Saleh at the back post after Jonathan Pitroipa’s low cross from the right was initially missed by Luis Jimenez from six yards out.

Then, 12 minutes before the interval, Sina Ashoori headed over for the hosts after Soroush Rafiei’s free-kick, before Pitroipa saw his effort saved by

Mohammadreza Akhbari down the other end on the stroke of half-time as the visitors went into the interval in a commanding position.

Tractorsazi, though, were in no mood to lie down. After Brazilian defender Carlos Cardoso had headed over soon after the restart, Hatami drew the Iranians level on 47 minutes when he finished well from inside the area after Masoud Sulaiman had failed to clear.

Then shortly after the hour, the hosts gave themselves a fighting chance when Iranpourian rocketed into the back of the net from 20 yards.

And with 17 minutes remaining Hatami cranked up the volume in the stadium when he turned on the edge of the penalty area and shot low under Ahmad Shambih to ensure a frantic finale.

The Iranian side pushed for an equaliser to take the tie into extra-time but it was not to be as Bakhtiar Rahmani’s free-kick from 20 yards with just seconds remaining rebounded back off the wall as Al Nasr survived the onslaught to book their place in the quarter-finals.

“I congratulate Al Nasr on this victory and I also thank our fans for their support,” said Tractorsazi coach Amir Ghalehnoy.“

“We should have scored five or six goals but it didn’t happen. Despite our good performance, we didn’t get the result we needed. This is one of my bad days. We played good football but couldn’t emerge victorious.”