{"id":11124,"date":"2010-04-02T14:47:20","date_gmt":"2010-04-02T21:47:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2010\/04\/02\/zobahan-zoom-to-the-fore\/"},"modified":"2010-04-02T14:47:20","modified_gmt":"2010-04-02T21:47:20","slug":"zobahan-zoom-to-the-fore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2010\/04\/02\/zobahan-zoom-to-the-fore\/","title":{"rendered":"Zobahan zoom to the fore"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float: right;\" src=\"http:\/\/www.footballiran.ir\/Images\/News\/Smal_Pic\/20-5-1388\/IMAGE633855995077812500.jpg\" \/>AFC &#8211; ESFAHAN, <strong>Zobahan started their AFC Champions League 2010 campaign with a 1-0 victory at home to UAE\u2019s Al Wahda.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It was a laboured, if expected triumph that many pundits felt was the Iranian side\u2019s only hope for points in a group that also featured Asian giants Al Ittihad and Bunyodkor.<\/p>\n<p>A 2-2 draw away to Ittihad in their next match raised a few eyebrows, not so much for Zob Ahan\u2019s performance but for how the Saudis managed to waste a chance against the unfancied Iranians.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Turnaround<br \/><\/strong><br \/>However, Match Days 3 &#038; 4 saw Zob Ahan turn the group on its head in stunning fashion. A 3-0 home win against previously unbeaten Bunyodkor and a sensational follow-up 1-0 triumph in Tashkent had Zob Ahan standing proudly atop the group and o the verge of a last 16 place.<\/p>\n<p>With bottom side Wahda visiting Esfahan on Match Day 5, Zobahan are in the driving seat and could seal their advance even before entertaining Ittihad on MD6.<\/p>\n<p>Striker Mohammad Reza Khalatbari has been a key figure in both wins over the Uzbeks, scoring at home and the winner in Tashkent.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Nearly there<br \/><\/strong><br \/>Coach Mansour Ebrahimzadeh must now only ensure his teams do the simple things well to emerge from the group in only their second ACL campaign.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe prepared well for the match and we knew that it would be difficult,\u201d said the coach.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe capitalised on the mistakes made by our opponents and it helped us to win. I\u2019d like to congratulate our fans and my players for this win.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>AFC &#8211; ESFAHAN, Zobahan started their AFC Champions League 2010 campaign with a 1-0 victory&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22614,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[90],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-c17-asian-competitions"],"views":3576,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11124","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=11124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11124\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}