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| AFC Champions League |
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| Luck was with us, says Valeriu |
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| AFC Champions League |
ALEPPO - Al Ittihad Aleppo coach Tita Valeriu conceded his side had an element of luck as they battled back from a goal down to defeat last year's AFC Champions League finalists Sepahan 2-1 on Wednesday evening.
Hadi Aghily controversially put Sepahan in front in the 47th minute when his header was deflected towards the target and a goal was awarded despite Yahya Al Rached looking like he had cleared the ball before it had crossed the line.
But goals from Venezuelan pair Jonathan Perez and Jesus Gomez in four second-half minutes denied Sepahan the win they needed to keep their chase of Kuruvchi alive.
The result means the Uzbek side cannot be overtaken at the top of Group A and Mirdjalal Kasimov's team will go through to the last eight in their debut season in the continental championship.
"I'm pleased with the performance of the team in what was a very open game," said Valeriu.
"In the first half our performance was not good while Sepahan controlled the play and had several chances.
"But although Sepahan took the lead we managed to score two goals which gave us the win.
"Today we were lucky and luck was what we have missed in the previous matches.
“We organised the defensive line and we made few mistakes and that was the main reason behind the victory."
In contrast to Valeriu, Sepahan coach Jorvan Vieira bemoaned his side's lack of fortune in the game, insisting the referee ruled out a goal he felt was perfectly legitimate.
"We scored two correct goals and the referee denied us the lead early in the game which affected the players," said Vieira.
"We had several chances to score and it was strange how our strikers missed those chances. The result of the match between Kuruvchi and Al Ittihad had put pressure on our players.
"The game was very hard especially because Al Ittihad are not an easy team. We had a good game but we were affected by the pressure while Al Ittihad scored two goals in four quick minutes."
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