{"id":15872,"date":"2013-09-18T08:55:34","date_gmt":"2013-09-18T15:55:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/?p=15872"},"modified":"2013-09-18T08:57:29","modified_gmt":"2013-09-18T15:57:29","slug":"esteghlal-crush-buriram-hopes-to-go-to-semi-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2013\/09\/18\/esteghlal-crush-buriram-hopes-to-go-to-semi-finals\/","title":{"rendered":"Esteghlal crush Buriram hopes to go to semi-finals [VIDEO]"},"content":{"rendered":"

AFC – BURIRAM, Coach Amir Ghalenoei revealed a half-time speech delivered during Wednesday\u2019s AFC Champions League quarter-final second leg inspired Esteghlal to record a 2-1 comeback win over Thailand\u2019s Buriram United as the Iran champions remained on course for a record equalling third continental title.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Esteghlal held a slender one-goal advantage from last month\u2019s first leg in Tehran, but saw that erased after 38 minutes of the second leg at Buriram Stadium as Osmar Barba\u2019s unmarked header levelled the last-eight tie on aggregate.<\/p>\n

But after former Esteghlal midfielder Ghalenoei – who has won three Iranian league title while in charge of the Tehran Blues – delivered a rousing half-time address, Hanif Omranzadeh and Andranik Teymourian scored in the second half as the 1970 and 1991 Asian Club Championship winners sealed their place in next week\u2019s semi-final.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the dressing room at half-time I didn\u2019t speak about technical matters, I just provided motivation,\u201d said Ghalenoei.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told the players you are Iranian and have 45 minutes and we have to show our honour as Iranians.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe recognised some spaces on the pitch and we knew that we could score from corners. The players played very well and as I wanted as they showed their Iranian honour.\u201d<\/p>\n

The home side had been the more adventurous side in the first half, although Barba\u2019s header was only Buriram\u2019s second effort on target.<\/p>\n

But at the start of the second half, Buriram failed to clear a Teymourian corner and defender Omranzadeh was on hand to level the tie on the night.\"\"<\/p>\n

And with Buriram needing two goals in normal time to advance, Teymourian\u2019s spectacular stoppage time strike capped an impressive night for the midfielder.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the first half our aim was not to concede, but we made a small mistake and conceded a goal,\u201d added Ghalenoei.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut in the second half we changed our plan and played with three strikers and we could score two goals and win the match.\u201d<\/p>\n

Esteghlal will now travel to Seoul for next week\u2019s semi-final first leg after Korean champions FC Seoul earlier beat 2012 finalists Al Ahli from Saudi Arabia 1-0 to advance 2-1 on aggregate with the return fixture taking place in Tehran a week later.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is one of my dreams to be champion of Asian football with Esteghlal,\u201d said former Iran coach Ghalenoei.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have the ability and potential to win the AFC Champions League and we believe we can.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=_1gnGHT3MV0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AFC – BURIRAM, Coach Amir Ghalenoei revealed a half-time speech delivered during Wednesday\u2019s AFC Champions…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25049,"featured_media":15876,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[84,87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c47-featured-news","category-c14-ipl-league-persian-gulf-cup"],"views":4753,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15872","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\/25049"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15872\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}