Mame Baba Thiam was the hero on the night; his treble of strikes eased Esteghlal past their Iran Pro League rivals, who could only find the back of the net once, after the damage had been done.

Prolific Thiam too hot to handle

Mame Thiam joined Esteghlal last February, penning a permanent deal with the Blues after terminating his Juventus contract with mutual consent. Until that point, he had been stuck in a perpetual cycle of short-term stints at European clubs, so Iran provided a fresh opportunity for the Senegalese forward to jump-start his career.

After a tense start, Esteghlal were awarded a penalty kick inside 11 minutes and Senegalese forward Thiam fired from the spot into the bottom left corner, taking the tie back to square one.

Hamid Bouhamdan came close to levelling the score for Zobahan in the 29th minute but his shot from the left cannoned off the woodwork.

As the first half neared its end, Thiam was on target again, this time from outside the box as he curled a left-footed effort that left goalkeeper Mohammad Rashid Mazaheri helpless to put Esteghlal in front four minutes before the break.

Last year’s semi-finalists had to reverse a 3-2 defeat from the first leg and needed 89 minutes to do so after Ahmed Nourollahi’s opener was cancelled out by Romarinho. Skipper Seyed Jalal Hosseini delivered the all-important winner to the relief of the 80,000 fans in the stands.

The hosts managed to level the aggregate score before halftime but were unable to keep Al Sadd's attackers at bay as a Baghdad Bounedjah brace consigned them to elimination.

The hosts wasted no time in taking full control and were rewarded with a goal inside 11 minutes when Nam Tae-hee advanced down the left and sent a low ball across the goalmouth that was inadvertently converted by defender Mohamed Ahmad past his own goalkeeper.

Al Duhail doubled their tally at the half-hour mark through Youssef El Arabi who stabbed in Ismail Mohammad’s powerful cross from the right flank.

Very little changed after the break as the Qataris continued to attack in numbers and soon found the net for a third time. El Arabi sent defender Sultan Al Brake through on goal and the latter attempted to lob goalkeeper Khalid Eisa who was able to get his fingertips on the ball before it fell for Mohammad who tapped into the empty net in the 54th minute.

Al Jazira survived 45 minutes of one-way traffic as Persepolis set up shop at their visitors’ end of the pitch in pursuit of an early leveller.

Despite the pressure, the Iranians could only muster a weak header from Siamak Nemati that was saved by goalkeeper Ali Khaseif and an effort from Farshad Ahmadzadeh that missed the target by a small margin as the two sides headed into the break level.

The home side finally found a breakthrough in the 63rd minute after a well-worked attacking move saw Ahmadzadeh lay-off a pass for Ahmad Nourollahi who struck with venom from 25 yards out into the top corner to put Persepolis in front.

Kuala Lumpur: A match-winning hat-trick from Esteghlal’s Mame Thiam in the 2018 AFC Champions League Round of 16, second leg against Zobahan has seen the Senegalese striker named as the Toyota Player of the Week.

Esteghlal went into Tuesday’s game against their Islamic Republic of Iran rivals a goal down from the first leg but Thiam leveled proceedings with an early penalty, before curling in a fabulous effort from distance shortly before half-time.

Midway through the second half, the forward side-footed home his third in what was ultimately the contest’s deciding goal, his seventh of the campaign. Thiam got all four of his shots on target, posting a conversion rate of 75 percent, and scored a rating of 9.2.

Thiam’s goals have taken Esteghlal to a first quarter-final appearance since 2013 as he became only the fourth player this campaign to net three or more goals in a game, after Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors duo Adriano and Kim Shin-wook and Guangzhou Evergrande’s Ricardo Goulart.

Second in this week’s ranking is another player who shone in Tehran, Ahmad Nourollahi (pictured below), whose stunning strike opened the scoring in Persepolis’s 2-1 victory over Al Jazira on Monday.