{"id":11500,"date":"2010-09-21T16:35:05","date_gmt":"2010-09-21T23:35:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2010\/09\/21\/ebrahimzadeh-braced-for-steelyard-heat\/"},"modified":"2010-09-21T16:35:05","modified_gmt":"2010-09-21T23:35:05","slug":"ebrahimzadeh-braced-for-steelyard-heat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2010\/09\/21\/ebrahimzadeh-braced-for-steelyard-heat\/","title":{"rendered":"Ebrahimzadeh braced for Steelyard heat"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align: left;\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float: right;\" src=\"http:\/\/images.the-afc.com\/afc\/coaches\/e\/300x200\/mansour_ebrahimzadeh_zobahan_v_pohang_aclqf2_pc.jpg\" \/>AFC &#8211; POHANG, <strong>Zob Ahan boss Mansour Ebrahimzadeh is expecting to face a Pohang  Steelers backlash when his side look to book their place in the  semi-finals of the AFC Champions League on Wednesday. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Zob Ahan hold a slender advantage following a 2-1 victory in  last week&#8217;s first-leg of the quarter-final tie in Iran and will have  striker Mohammad Reza Khalatbari available again after suspension .<\/p>\n<p>Ebrahimzadeh&#8217;s  side have impressed in their run to the last eight, coming through a  tough group that featured last season&#8217;s finalists Al Ittihad and Asian  powerhouse Bunyodkor before seeing off domestic rivals Mes in the last  16. <\/p>\n<p>They also sit top of the Iran Pro League but despite their  fine form, Ebrahimzadeh, pictured during Tuesday\u2019s pre-match press  conference, still expects a stiff examination of their credentials by  the AFC Champions League holders at the Pohang Steelyard.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Pohang are the champions and the most powerful team in the K-League,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI  think that we are going to have a tough game tomorrow but we will do  our best to get a victory with fair play, as we did at home. Fair play  is the most important thing in football.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>The first game in  Esfahan saw Zob Ahan come out on top as Mahdi Rajabzadeh&#8217;s 75th minute  penalty settled the contest after Mota&#8217;s long-range strike had cancelled  out Igor Castro&#8217;s opener.<\/p>\n<p>Ebrahimzadeh conceded he did not have  too much information available to him on the Koreans prior to the game  and admitted he is in a similar situation when battle resumes on  Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We are still lacking information but we have an analysis based on the first match,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cIran coach Afshin Ghotbi does a lot of overseas trips but I did not have a chance to ask him about Pohang.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>However,  Ebrahimzadeh believes his side are well prepared to face Pohang as an  extended stay in Korea has allowed the players to acclimatise to  conditions in East Asia.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We arrived in Korea five days ago, so we have adapted to the environment well,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have no jet lag. The food and weather are also fine.\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>AFC &#8211; POHANG, Zob Ahan boss Mansour Ebrahimzadeh is expecting to face a Pohang Steelers&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22615,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[90],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-c17-asian-competitions"],"views":2705,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11500","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\/22615"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11500\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}