Following the group-stage competitions of 2016 AFC Champions League, Iran’s Zobahan bagged a 1-0 win over Qatar Stars League champions Lekhwiya on Tuesday.
Led by Yahya Golmohammadi, Zobahan met Lekhwiya of Qatar at Abdulla Bin Khalifa Stadium where Rajabzadeh found the net for the Iranian club early in the second half to give Zobahan all three points in the teams’ opening Group B clash.
“This was the best possible start that we could think of because winning against Lekhwiya is not easy and I’m happy with the performance of the players,” said Zobahan coach Golmohammadi.
Also in Group A of this year’s continental club championship, Sepahan handed Al Nasr of the United Arab Emirates a 2-0 defeat on Tuesday to have a promising opening at the 2016 AFC Champions League.
Brazilian Luciano Pereira scored a goal in each half for Sepahan coached by Igor Stimac.
“In football, it’s the teams who play matches, not individual players. I said earlier that our opponents have world class players but as we witnessed in the match that big names didn’t make a difference,” said Stimac.
Sepahan last featured in the AFC Champions League in 2011, when they reached the quarter-finals a year after losing to Seongnam Ilhwa in the final in Tokyo, but the Isfahan-based side impressed throughout in a well-deserved win.
The other Iranian representative at the tournament Tractorsazi Tabriz will take on the club from the United Arab Emirates Al Jazira in Group C of the 2016 AFC Champions League on Wednesday.
The 2016 AFC Champions League is the 35th edition of Asia's premier club football tournament organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), and the 14th under the current AFC Champions League title.
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