{"id":11599,"date":"2010-10-20T19:54:37","date_gmt":"2010-10-21T02:54:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2010\/10\/20\/igor-castro-sends-iranians-into-acl-final\/"},"modified":"2010-10-20T19:54:37","modified_gmt":"2010-10-21T02:54:37","slug":"igor-castro-sends-iranians-into-acl-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2010\/10\/20\/igor-castro-sends-iranians-into-acl-final\/","title":{"rendered":"Igor Castro Sends Iranians Into ACL Final [VIDEO]"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"zob_12\"goal.com<\/a> – RIYADH, Iranian side<\/span> Zobahan<\/strong><\/div>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/a> will face Seongnam Ilhwa in the Asian Champions League final, after the underdogs dumped<\/span> Al Hilal out of the competition with a 1-0 second leg (and 2-0 aggregate victory) in Riyadh.<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n


A crisp Igor Castro finish just after half-time stunned the home side, as Zobahan grabbed a crucial away goal after Ghasem Hadadifar’s strike had given them a 1-0 win in Iran. Veteran defender Lee Young-Pyo was then sent off on 71 minutes after petulantly kicking an opponent.<\/p>\n

The defeat marks the end of Eric Gerets’ reign as Al Hilal manager, as he departs now to take over the Moroccan national team, unable to secure a treble with the Saudi giants.<\/p>\n

For Mansour Ebrahimzadeh’s side though the fairytale run continues on the continent, as they secured a famous result.<\/p>\n

They are deserved winners after just over 180 minutes of football, nullifying one of the competition’s most impressive attacking units and always providing a goal-scoring threat of their own.<\/p>\n

Despite boasting stars of international quality Al Hilal were unable to truly trouble their opponents, reduced to half-chances and ultimately ruing a missed penalty by Christian Wilhelmsson in the first leg.<\/p>\n

The visitors came close to taking a 21st minute lead at the King Fahd International Stadium, Hadadifar’s low free-kick kept out well at the near-post by goalkeeper Hassan Al-Otaibi.<\/p>\n

Al-Otaibi then had to deny Mohammad Khalatbari from close range before Ahmed Al Fraidi missed a wonderful chance for Al Hilal, blasting over from close range after the ball broke to him kindly in the box.<\/p>\n

Defender Majed Al-Marshedi was similarly wayward with a header from a Thiago Neves corner, before the influential Brazilian saw a long-range effort of his own spilled by Shahab Gordan.<\/p>\n

A mix of superb last-ditch defending and unimaginative attacking play saw Zobahan go into the break on level terms, though Gerets’ side emerged with a renewed energy after the break.<\/p>\n

Moments into the second period Romania international Mirel Radoi saw his driven effort just clear the crossbar before talisman striker Yasser Al-Qahtani headed over.

Castro<\/strong> then punished Gerets’ side for their lack of incision in the final third, outmuscling Osama Hawsawi in the penalty area before turning and shooting past Al-Otaibi in one swift motion.<\/p>\n

Minutes later the experienced Lee Young-Pyo inexplicably kicked out at Khalatbari after the striker sheperded the ball out of play for a teammate to receive treatment, effectively ending any chance of a late Al Hilal revival, allowing the Iranians to book their place in the final.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Full Highlights on PFDCTV<\/span>:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=JBs3gCZErLQ<\/a>https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=jLY-k_XFIjE<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

goal.com – RIYADH, Iranian side Zobahan will face Seongnam Ilhwa in the Asian Champions League…<\/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-11599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-c17-asian-competitions"],"views":5236,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11599","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=11599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11599\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}