Marfavi admits Al Ahli made it tough

Mehdi Salehi opened the scoring after 24 minutes when he latched onto Farhad Majidi’s delightful reverse pass and drilled a clinical finish past keeper Yasser Al Mosailem.

Al Ahli levelled from the penalty spot through Victor Simoes in the 36th minute after Siavash Akbarpour bundled Sahib Al Abdullah over in the box.

But Amirhossein Sadeghi secured the win just before the break when Al Ahli keeper Yasser Al Mosailem was caught out by Fabio Januario’s corner allowing the defender to head into an unguarded net after he out-jumped a crowd of players at the back post.

The result meant the Iranians claimed one of the two qualifying spots in Group A and Marfavi admitted they had been pushed hard by Al Ahli.

“I’m very happy for the win, all my players tried very hard on the field and the spectators kept supporting us throughout the whole game. I’d really like to congratulate and thank each and every of our fans for their fantastic support,” he said.

“It was a tough game, I shall confess.  Al Ahli displayed good quality football. They played really well against us both in the first game and the return.

“Comparing all four teams in Group A, I should say Al Ahli has the strongest attack and they were playing with a carefully-planned scheme. Fortunately, we succeeded at controlling the game as well their tactics.”

Marfavi is now keen for his side to seal top spot when they travel to Abu Dhabi to face Al Jazira in their final game.

“We started this round with great determination and full power and would like to end the group stage in the same fashion,” he added.

“We are very much motivated to beat Al Jazira too, so that we can conclude this round with a good result.

“I also really hope the other three Iranian teams can make it through to the last 16, it would be good for football in the country.

“I know we show a different level of football at the continental level, far better than in the league matches.

“We have been improving game by game and played every match with a tailor-made plan,” Marfavi concluded.

Al Ahli coach Sergio Farias, meanwhile, pointed to a lengthy injury list as the main reason behind his side’s defeat.

“The reason for our defeat today was that I wasn’t able to use some of my regular players, mainly defenders,” said the Brazilian.

“I had to field some new players, who were making their debut appearance in the continental tournament. We made big mistakes in defence which was an obvious result of our big injury list.”