{"id":11011,"date":"2010-02-24T22:35:19","date_gmt":"2010-02-25T06:35:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2010\/02\/24\/bonacic-mes-were-playing-for-iran\/"},"modified":"2010-02-24T22:35:19","modified_gmt":"2010-02-25T06:35:19","slug":"bonacic-mes-were-playing-for-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2010\/02\/24\/bonacic-mes-were-playing-for-iran\/","title":{"rendered":"Bonacic: \u2018Mes were playing for Iran\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"float: right;\" alt=\"bonacic_smiling\" src=\"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/bonacic_smiling.jpg\" height=\"281\" width=\"404\" \/>AFC &#8211; KERMAN, <strong>Mes Kerman coach Luka Bonacic believes national pride proved the driving force as his side defeated Al Ahli 4-2 in their AFC Champions League opener at Shahid Bahonar Stadium. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Iranians had taken the lead through Mostafa Seyfi before Salem Sadir equalised for the UAE side on the stroke of half-time.<\/p>\n<p>The visitors then took the lead early in the second period when Iran international Mehrzad Madanchi silenced his countrymen but Mahdi Rajabzadeh levelled the Group D encounter before again Mehdi Rajabzadeh and Ali Samereh made the points safe in the final five minutes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m really glad we have won the game,\u201d said Bonacic (pictured). <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe fact that we were playing to defend the reputation of Iranian football made my players fight tooth and nail and that was why they were highly motivated to win. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI strongly believe that we had complete mastery over our opponents today. We controlled the game from the very first minutes of the match. I think we deserved the victory. \u201c<\/p>\n<p>Bonacic took over the Iran Pro League strugglers in December last year but they have continued to flounder on the domestic front and the Croatian coach is hopeful this win can give them renewed vigour when they return to league football.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI arrived at the club just two months ago, there some problems back then which affected my players\u2019 performance,\u201d he added. \u201cI\u2019m hopeful these problems get resolved soon.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are now at the bottom end of the league table and we are under pressure because of our position. We can\u2019t afford any mistakes in the domestic league matches and we really have to strive hard to survive. \u201c<\/p>\n<p>Al Ahli coach Henk Ten Cate believes his side need to improve their concentration in the closing stages of the match after Mes secured the three points with two late strikes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is the third game I have been in charge of Al Ahli and in recent matches we have lost in the last 15 minutes,\u201d said the Dutchman. \u201cThe players are still not completely fit for a full 90 minute clash.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut Mes performed well and deserved their win. I believe Iranian sides will do well this year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>AFC &#8211; KERMAN, Mes Kerman coach Luka Bonacic believes national pride proved the driving force&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22614,"featured_media":11010,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[90],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c17-asian-competitions"],"views":3052,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22614"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}