ACL MD4 – Group C: Tractorsazi Tabriz V Pakhtakor [Preview]

AFC – TABRIZ, Pakhtakor coach Numon Khasanov is hoping his side can pull off a repeat of their first meeting with Group C leaders Tractorsazi Tabriz in the 2016 AFC Champions League and pick up a victory over the Iranians when they meet again on Wednesday.

Pakhtakor won when the teams met on Matchday Three thanks to a solitary goal from Igor Sergeev to keep themselves in contention for a place in the knockout phase of the competition as Khasanov’s side handed Tractorsazi their first defeat of the campaign.

The Iranians still top Group C with six points from their opening three games, one point more than Saudi Arabia’s Al Hilal, while Pakhtakor are in third place another point further back with Al Jazira bottom with just a solitary point.

“Tractorsazi are a really a good team and they have a number of great players” said Khasanov

“We have a difficult match but we will be trying to have good performance tomorrow.

“Our first encounter with Tractorsazi was hard, but now we know them much better. They showed how good they are but although we were a bit lucky, we showed our ability and got the three points,” said Khasanov, who issued his squad a clean bill of health for Wednesday’s encounter at the Yadegar Emam Stadium.

Tractorsazi will go into the game with doubts over the availability of Soroush Rafaei, who will face a late fitness test according to coach Amir Ghalehnoy.

“We played good football in Uzbekistan,” said the former Iran national team coach. “We had a lot of chances in in the second half, but we lost the match.

“Pakhtakor have a physical squad and their players are fast. If we can achieve a win we will be in position where our chance of qualification is 60%.

“Our league results in the second half of the season show that we have quality and we hope everyone will support us to raise our spirits. Such matches can be considered ‘national’ and I hope in this round all three Iranian teams will gain victories.”