{"id":11059,"date":"2010-03-09T20:48:17","date_gmt":"2010-03-10T04:48:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2010\/03\/09\/injuries-hamstrung-tired-esteghlal-laments-coach\/"},"modified":"2010-03-09T20:48:17","modified_gmt":"2010-03-10T04:48:17","slug":"injuries-hamstrung-tired-esteghlal-laments-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2010\/03\/09\/injuries-hamstrung-tired-esteghlal-laments-coach\/","title":{"rendered":"Injuries hamstrung tired Esteghlal laments coach"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Marfavi2010\"AFC – TEHRAN, Esteghlal coach Samad Marfavi blamed fatigue and a string of injuries for Tuesday\u2019s goalless AFC Champions League draw with Al Jazira at the Azadi Stadium. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Both side\u2019s struck the woodwork in the closing stages of a frantic first half as Al Jazira\u2019s Khalid Sebil saw a superb long range effort hit the crossbar before Esteghlal\u2019s Fabio Januario struck the frame of the goal.<\/p>\n

Following the fast paced first half which saw Esteghlal goalkeeper Mohammad Mohammadi and Al Jazira counterpart Ali Khaseif produce several superb saves, the chances dried up after the break as both side\u2019s were forced to settle for a point after failing to convert their opportunities.<\/p>\n

“It was a good game and my players played really well. I had predicted before the game that it would be a difficult game for us and it was really difficult. But we need to use our opportunities more to win games,\u201d said Marfavi.<\/p>\n

“I believe that my players were tired from the league and the cup games. In addition to that, I couldn’t use some other players of mine because they were having injury problems. I think these two reasons brought about the draw for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s Esteghlal beat Al Ahli in their opening game and after Qatar\u2019s Al Gharafa handed the Saudi Arabian side a second defeat, Marfavi\u2019s side sit second in the table two points behind the Qataris, who top the table with a 100% record. <\/p>\n

“Our goal for now is to proceed to the next round of the tournament,\u201d added Marfavi.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is no big deal if we qualify as the table toppers or the runners-up, we are only thinking about progressing.\u201d<\/p>\n

After losing 2-1 at home to Al Gharafa last time out, Al Jazira\u2019s Brazilian coach Abel Braga was pleased that the Abu Dhabi outfit could pick up their first point of the competition despite injury issues of his own.<\/p>\n

\u201cEsteghlal were strong in the air, and we were more effective on the floor. They could have even won the game if they continued to cross more balls,\u201d said Braga.<\/p>\n

“I had a list of five injured players who couldn\u2019t help us against Esteghlal but despite this we played with three strikers which means we respected fair play and were not planning to defend throughout the game.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AFC – TEHRAN, Esteghlal coach Samad Marfavi blamed fatigue and a string of injuries for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22614,"featured_media":11058,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[90],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c17-asian-competitions"],"views":2232,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11059","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=11059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}