Tue, 30 Nov, -0001
Isfahan: Sepahan ended their 2013 AFC Champions League campaign on a positive note as goals by Amid Jahanalian, Mohammad Gholami and Mohammad Reza Khalatbari led the three-time Iranian champions to a 3-1 victory over Al Gharafa of Qatar on Tuesday.
Jahanalian’s early strike was cancelled out by Majdi Siddiq’s magnificent free-kick just before half-time. But Gholami and Khalatbari both found the net early in the second half to give the Iranian side all three points at the Foolad Shahr Stadium.
The result had little effect on the final outcome of Group C as Sepahan finished a point behind second-placed Al Gharafa to bow out at the group stage for the first time since 2010.
Having seen his side secure the spot in the last 16 with a game to spare, Al Gharafa coach Habib Sadek fielded a much changed line-up from his team’s previous matches with six players starting a match for the first time in this season’s competition.
One of the newcomers, defender Ali Bazmandegan, was culpable for the opening goal in the 11th minute as he completely misread the flight of Omid Ebrahimi’s long pass to Jahanalian which allowed the Sepahan player to peel off into space and line up a volley that flew past goalkeeper Abdulaziz Ali.
The Iranian side should have extended their advantage just a minute later as another long ball picked out Radomir Dalovic on the edge of the box but the Montenegrin forward sent his effort narrowly wide.
Sepahan went close again in the 20th minute when Ahmad Jamshidian saw his effort cleared off the line by Mohamed Sayyar and that miss looked costly when Al Gharafa got back on terms just a minute before half-time.
Having been on the back foot for much of the half, the visitors were awarded a free-kick 25 metres from goal and Siddiq stepped up to send the ball unerringly into the top left corner of the net with goalkeeper Shahab Gordan rooted to the spot.
Coming so close to the interval, the goal could have completely deflated the hosts but they came out strongly at the start of the second half and regained the lead just two minutes after the restart when Gholami met Mohsen Irannejad’s cross from the left with a bullet diving header that found the bottom corner of the net.
Sepahan extended their lead in the 55th minute after a finely worked move. Dalovic centred from the left to Ebrahimi who laid the ball off for Khalatbari to steer it into the bottom left corner for his first goal of the campaign.
Mohammad Ali Ahmadi looked to have extended the advantage still further just two minute later but his effort was ruled out for offside.
And as the game moved into stoppage time, Ebrahimi was denied a goal when his header came back off the crossbar.
Photo: WSG