{"id":15870,"date":"2013-09-17T13:40:37","date_gmt":"2013-09-17T20:40:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/?p=15870"},"modified":"2013-09-17T13:40:37","modified_gmt":"2013-09-17T20:40:37","slug":"acl-qf-2nd-leg-esteghlal-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2013\/09\/17\/acl-qf-2nd-leg-esteghlal-preview\/","title":{"rendered":"ACL QF (2nd leg): Esteghlal preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

AFC – BURIRAM, Club legend Amir Ghalenoei insists Iran champions Esteghlal are driven by a strong desire to claim a record-equalling third continental title ahead of Wednesday\u2019s AFC Champions League quarter-final second leg against Thai Premier League leaders Buriram United.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Esteghlal claimed a fortunate 1-0 win in last month\u2019s first leg in Tehran thanks to Khosro Heydari\u2019s second-minute strike before goalkeeper Mehdi Rahmati maintained the lead in the second half at the Azadi Stadium.<\/p>\n

Ghalenoei\u2019s side did suffer a 2-0 domestic defeat by Zob Ahan last week prior to making the trip to Thailand, but the former Iran coach is confident his side will remain on course to add to the Asian Club Championship titles won in 1970 and 1991 and join Korea Republic\u2019s Pohang Steelers as the only three-time continental champions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe lost our last game against Zob Ahan and we can\u2019t forget that but Zob Ahan played better. We didn\u2019t have all our players available due to injury and suspension, but now we have all our players available,\u201d said former Esteghlal midfielder Ghalenoei, who is in his third spell in charge at the club.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have improved over the last few days and the players have been able to mentally and physically recover and we are ready.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have very strong desire to be champions of Asia.\u201d<\/p>\n

Esteghlal arrived in Thailand at the weekend in time to see Buriram, under recently-installed coach Spanish Alejandro Menendez, remain five points clear at the top of the Thai Premier League with a 2-0 win over BEC Tero Sasana.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe came to Buriram earlier due to the time difference and also the distance between Iran and Thailand. We feel for every hour of time difference we must arrive one day earlier. Now I feel we have adapted to the conditions and we are ready to play,\u201d added Ghalenoei.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the quarter-finals every match has two halves. We won the first match in Tehran 1-0, but I think the most important half is the second leg.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that Buriram are a good team, and even though their coach has changed their plan has not changed. They have good midfielders and good strikers and we will look to disrupt this connection.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur aim in Tehran was not to concede a goal, now our goal is to score a goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Buriram welcome back defender Theerathon Bunmathan from suspension after he missed the first leg and Ghalenoei knows his side must pay particular attention to the attack-minded left-back.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know Buriram have good players,\u201d he added. \u201cThe number two (Theerathon) is dangerous when he attacks, but we have plans for all players. He plays on the left and he is one of the best left- footed players.\u201d<\/p>\n

Defender Amir Hossein Sadeghi, meanwhile, is well aware Esteghlal must produce a better performance on Wednesday having rode their luck during the first leg last month.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the first leg we scored early and because of that our plan changed, but we did not play well,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut over the last week few weeks we have trained well and we want to score a goal to qualify for the next stage.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AFC – BURIRAM, Club legend Amir Ghalenoei insists Iran champions Esteghlal are driven by a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22614,"featured_media":13945,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[90,84],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c17-asian-competitions","category-c47-featured-news"],"views":2643,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15870","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=15870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15870\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}