{"id":11978,"date":"2011-03-01T18:30:08","date_gmt":"2011-03-02T02:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2011\/03\/01\/ebrahimzadeh-already-targeting-title\/"},"modified":"2011-03-01T18:30:08","modified_gmt":"2011-03-02T02:30:08","slug":"ebrahimzadeh-already-targeting-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2011\/03\/01\/ebrahimzadeh-already-targeting-title\/","title":{"rendered":"Ebrahimzadeh already targeting title"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Ebrahimzadeh\"AFC – ESFAHAN, After narrowly missing out on AFC Champions League glory last year nothing less than the title will do this time, according to coach Mansour Ebrahimzadeh. <\/strong><\/p>\n

The Iranian side surprised all in their continental championship debut as they claimed a number of formidable scalps before falling at the final hurdle with a 3-1 defeat to Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma in Tokyo.<\/p>\n

Now they have regrouped and are fresh for a renewed assault on the title, though first they will need to progress from a tricky Group D that contains Al Rayyan, Al Shabab and Wednesday\u2019s opponents at Foolad Shahr Stadium – Emirates.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year we only did half of the job and this year we are going to strive to complete our unfinished task of winning the title,\u201d said Ebrahimzadeh.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year everybody said we had come to the AFC Champions League to gain experience for future tournaments, but everybody witnessed our team\u2019s great performance. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the draw was made last year everybody named our group as the group of death, but I had a slogan for the team to convert the death into life and this year I have another slogan for my team and that is \u2018we will survive\u2019. This is going to be our slogan throughout the whole competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year we are only aiming at winning the title. I am a great believer that there\u2019s a lot we can do this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zob Ahan are strong favourites to kick start their title bid with victory over AFC Champions League newcomers Emirates.<\/p>\n

The UAE side were relegated from their domestic top flight last season but claimed a stunning first-ever victory in the President\u2019s Cup.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my opinion Emirates are the strongest team in the group,\u201d added Ebrahimzadeh. \u201cThey are so strong, quick and nimble. <\/p>\n

\u201cI know they\u2019ll most probably be playing defensively, but we shall remain patient enough and devise intelligent attacks without any agitation.<\/p>\n

\u201cFortunately everybody in my team has good motivation for the game and so do Emirates, because they\u2019ll be confronting the runners-up from the last edition.\u201d <\/p>\n

Emirates have been faring much better domestically this season and currently top the standings in the UAE Division One and most recently they suffered a narrow 3-2 defeat to UAE Pro League leaders Al Jazira in the President\u2019s Cup.<\/p>\n

And coach Ghazi Ghrair feels that performance proves that his players fear no one, regardless of their reputation.<\/p>\n

\u201cZob Ahan are very experienced, they have good players, they have good experience from last year, but we are also ready to take the points in Esfahan,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not here to come back to the Emirates empty handed, we don\u2019t want anyone to think we are weak because we are coming from the first division of the Emirates League.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are currently topping the table in the Emirates and in the last game against Al Jazira we demonstrated the good power of the team.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AFC – ESFAHAN, After narrowly missing out on AFC Champions League glory last year nothing…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22614,"featured_media":10999,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[90],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c17-asian-competitions"],"views":1998,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11978","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=11978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11978\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}