{"id":33193,"date":"2018-08-19T17:46:47","date_gmt":"2018-08-20T00:46:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/?p=33193"},"modified":"2018-08-19T17:46:47","modified_gmt":"2018-08-20T00:46:47","slug":"afc-champions-league-4-memorable-qatari-iranian-clashes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2018\/08\/19\/afc-champions-league-4-memorable-qatari-iranian-clashes\/","title":{"rendered":"AFC Champions League: 4 memorable Qatari-Iranian clashes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>AFC &#8211; KUALA LUMPUR, <strong>As both quarter-final fixtures of West Asia side in the 2018 AFC Champions League bring Iranian and Qatari clubs head to head, the-AFC.com remembers five times teams from the two nations faced off in recent years.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>For the first time since the introduction of the East v West final in 2013, all four teams in the West Asian quarter-finals come from just two countries, offering us the opportunity to watch two tasty IR Iran v Qatar encounters, as Tehran giants Estaghlal and Persepolis face Al Sadd and Al Duhail respectively.<\/p>\n<p>Throughout the years, teams from the two nations have produced some classics when they met. Here are four memorable matches between them from recent editions of the competition.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sepahan 2-4 Al Sadd* (2011 &#8211; Quarter-finals)<\/strong><br \/>\nIn the quarter-finals of the 2011 AFC Champions League, Sepahan threatened to complete one of the greatest comebacks in tournament history, but were denied at the end by a defiant Al Sadd.<\/p>\n<p>The Qatari club were awarded a 3-0 win in Isfahan after their opponents were found to have fielded an ineligible player, and were huge favourites to progress to the next stage as a result.<\/p>\n<p>It took Sepahan just seven minutes to break the deadlock in Doha, however, and it was apparent that the Iranian side truly believed they could overturn what seemed an insurmountable deficit.<\/p>\n<p>Just before the half hour mark, Hassan Ashjari made it 2-0 amid silence at the Jassim bin Hamad Stadium; the momentum had well and truly shifted now.<\/p>\n<p>This set up a frantic second half in which Sepahan threw everything at the opposition, but their overzealousness in attack allowed Mamadou Niang to strike a killer blow in the 86th minute to seal a 4-2 aggregate win for Al Sadd.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Foolad Sepahan Vs Al Sadd: AFC Champions League Quarter Final 2011 (1st Leg) 2011\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZBOcifTBdMA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Foolad 2-2 Al Sadd* (2014 &#8211; Round of 16)<\/strong><br \/>\n2014 witnessed another thrilling comeback attempt , this time in the Round of 16. Foolad played out a 0-0 draw with Al Sadd in the first leg in Doha, and were looking forward to having their supporters behind them for the second leg. Shockingly, Al Sadd raced into a 2-0 lead inside 30 minutes, leaving the home support stunned.<\/p>\n<p>In the 77th minute, however, Brazilian striker Chimba converted from the spot to cut the visitors\u2019 advantage in half, and give his team a slight glimmer of hope. Ten minutes later, he scored again, and Foolad were just one goal away from the quarter-finals.<\/p>\n<p>Despite their best efforts, the hosts failed to break down Al Sadd for a third time and exited the tournament, albeit with their heads held high.<\/p>\n<p>Al Sadd would eventually be knocked-out in the following round, losing to Al Hilal 1-0. Foolad, meanwhile, have only played in the AFC Champions League once since, in 2015 when they were eliminated at the group stage.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Al Sadd vs Al Foolad: AFC Champions League RD16 - 1st Leg\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/NxLaeT0nBJw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Lekhwiya v Persepolis (2015 &#8211; Group Stage)<\/strong><br \/>\nMany players from this year&#8217;s quarter-final clash between Al Duhail and Persepolis will remember playing having faced off in the competition as Lekhwiya (now Al Duhail) met their Iranian counterparts in the 2015 group stage.<\/p>\n<p>Persepolis opened their campaign with a comprehensive 3-0 victory over their visitors, Mohsen Bengar opened the scoring at the hour mark before the late Hadi Norouzi doubled his side&#8217;s lead six minutes later and Mohammad Nouri completed the rout from a spot-kick seven minutes from time.<\/p>\n<p>Norouzi passed away following a heart attack eight months after that game, while Bengar and Nouri have since left the club.<\/p>\n<p>The return fixture two months later saw Lekhwiya put on an impressive counter-attacking display to exact revenge in Doha with three second-half goals. Youssef Msekni headed the Qataris in front before Nam Tae-hee added a second and Ali Afif made it 3-0 in added time.<\/p>\n<p>All three players remain on Al Duhail&#8217;s books, although Msekni is sidelined with an Anterior Cruciate Ligament injury suffered in April.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Lekhwiya vs Persepolis: AFC Champions League 2015 (Group Stage)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/dXgYLdyzJ58?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Lekhwiya 2-1 Esteghlal Khuzestan (2017)<\/strong><br \/>\nFresh from their first league title just five years after the club\u2019s founding in 2011, Esteghlal Khuzestan gave a good account of themselves in the 2017 AFC Champions League, where they reached the knockout stage before losing to eventual finalists Al Hilal.<\/p>\n<p>In the group stage, the Iranian club held Lekhwiya, now Al Duhail after merging with El Jaish in 2017, to a 1-1 draw in Ahvaz, as they signalled their intent to challenge for top spot in Group B.<\/p>\n<p>In the return fixture, Aloys Nong fired Esteghlal Khuzestan into an early lead, as the visitors began to believe that a win was possible.<\/p>\n<p>Nevertheless, Nam Tae-hee and Almoez Ali each scored once late in the first half to put Lekhwiya in the lead, and the Qataris held on to cement their lead in the standings.<\/p>\n<p>Eshteghlal Khuzestan went on to qualify for the Round of 16 as group runners-up before losing 4-2 on aggregate to Al Hilal.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Lekhwiya vs Esteghlal Khouzestan (AFC Champions League 2017 : Group Stage - MD4)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/SmMeFOvTfOM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>AFC &#8211; KUALA LUMPUR, As both quarter-final fixtures of West Asia side in the 2018&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26307,"featured_media":33194,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[90,84,164,136,165],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c17-asian-competitions","category-c47-featured-news","category-ipl","category-iran-first-division","category-persian-gulf-pro-league"],"views":921,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33193","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\/26307"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33193"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33195,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33193\/revisions\/33195"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}