{"id":11225,"date":"2010-05-10T16:40:43","date_gmt":"2010-05-10T23:40:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2010\/05\/10\/saudi-iran-continue-fierce-acl-rivalry\/"},"modified":"2010-05-10T16:40:43","modified_gmt":"2010-05-10T23:40:43","slug":"saudi-iran-continue-fierce-acl-rivalry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2010\/05\/10\/saudi-iran-continue-fierce-acl-rivalry\/","title":{"rendered":"Saudi, Iran continue fierce ACL rivalry"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"float: right;\" alt=\"afc-cl22\" src=\"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/afc-cl22.jpg\" height=\"425\" width=\"425\" \/>AFC &#8211; KUALA LUMPUR,\u00a0 <strong>The AFC Champions League R16 clash  between Al Shabab and Esteghlal is yet another chapter in the fierce  rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran at all levels. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Although the Saudis have won the ACL twice and finished  runners-up once, thanks to Al Ittihad, in terms of head-to-head, the  Iranians have proven to be hard nuts.<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, one of the toughest  and most intimidating places in Asia to come away from with a win is  Iran, who can usually rely on tens of thousands of fans to back them  against all comers.<\/p>\n<p>Of the Saudi clubs\u2019 12 ACL games in Iran,  only Al Hilal, the Riyadh titans, have been able to win on Persian soil.  Their 1-0 victory over Saba Battery in the 2009 edition of the AFC  Champions League stands out as a lonely beacon in a haze of defeats.<\/p>\n<p>On  the other hand, Iranian teams have won three times in Saudi Arabia from  12 of their visits. <\/p>\n<p>Former ACL runners-up Sepahan were the  first to win in Saudi Arabia when they edged past Al Shabab 1-0 in  Riyadh in the 2007 edition of the Asia\u2019s premier club competition.<\/p>\n<p>It  was Sepahan again in 2008 when they shocked two-time champions Al  Ittihad 1-0 in Jeddah while Esteghlal overcame Al Ahli 2-1 in group  stage of this year\u2019s ACL in Jeddah.<\/p>\n<p>Sepahan alone played 12  matches against Saudi clubs and won eight. They lost two and two games  were drawn.<\/p>\n<p>A total of 25 matches have been played between the clubs from these  two countries so far with Iranian sides winning 13 while the Saudis  could manage full points in just six games.<\/p>\n<p>One of these matches  was played in Kuwait, during the 2002-03 competition when the group  stages were centralised.<\/p>\n<p>Six games ended in draws. Of the eight  matches played between them this year, out of which five went to the  Iranians, one to their rivals, while two ended in draws.<\/p>\n<p>Iran  hold a 33-27 advantage in goal difference.<\/p>\n<p>The overall  achievements of Saudi clubs in the AFC Champions League, however,  overshadow these statistics. <\/p>\n<p>Al Ittihad won the title twice in  2004 and 2005 and finished runners-up to Pohang Steelers last year while  the Iranians only have Sepahan\u2019s final appearance in 2007 to show for  their troubles.<\/p>\n<p>Three Iran clubs &#8211; Zob Ahan, Esteghlal and Mes  Kerman &#8211; have made it to the Round of 16 this year compared to two from  Saudi \u2013 Al Hilal and Al Shabab. <\/p>\n<p>Both the Saudi clubs, however,  topped their respective groups while only Zob Ahan managed to win Group  B.<\/p>\n<p>Zob Ahan will meet Mes Kerman in the R16 encounter but it  remains to be seen whether Esteghlal will be able to add another away  victory over the Saudis when they face Al Shabab on May 11.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>AFC &#8211; KUALA LUMPUR,\u00a0 The AFC Champions League R16 clash between Al Shabab and Esteghlal&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22614,"featured_media":11146,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[90],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c17-asian-competitions"],"views":2897,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11225","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=11225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11225\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}