"Our team played a great match but luck was not on our side,” said Ali. "We created many chances and deserved to win.

"It is true that we did not start the match the right way, but we dominated the second half and created several chances but we lacked the final touch.”

Al Rayyan produced 17 attempts on goal but only seven of those were on target with Achraf Bencharki’s header in the 57th minute cancelling out Farshad Faraji’s first half opener.

Persepolis were equally wasteful in front of goal with only two on target from their 10 attempts, with assistant coach Seyed Jalal Hosseini disappointed with the performance of several senior players.

"The point against Al Rayyan is not enough for us, especially since we were not able to maintain our lead,” said Hosseini.

"This is something we did not expect from the veteran players in our team, as we expected a better performance. Al Rayyan were able to come back by diversifying the attacks. In general, I am not satisfied with my team's performance.

"We created chances, especially in the first half, and we created other chances in the second half but we didn't translate them into goals, which is unfortunate.”

 

Al Rayyan, on four points, face UAE’s Al Wasl FC next week with Persepolis - on three points - take on Iraq’s Al Shorta.