According to Mehr's correspondent, in the continuation of the tenth-week matches of the 26th Premier League, from 16:45 today, Sunday, Persepolis football team hosted Foolad Khuzestan at the Shohaday-e Shahr-e Qods Stadium, and the match ended with a 1-0 victory for the southern guest. Vahid Amiri (87) scored for Foolad.
Persepolis took the field in this match with Payam Niazmand, Hossein Kanaani (79- Mohammad-Mahdi Zare), Danial Iri, Mehdi Tikdari (67- Igor Sergeev), Majid Eidi, Pouya Pourali, Mohammad Khodabandeh-Lou (22- Pouria Latififar), T.V. Bifouma (67- Mohammad-Hossein Sadeghi), Mohammad-Mahdi Mohebi, Ali Alipour and Pouria Shahrabadi (46- Seyed Abolfazl Jalali).
Foolad Khuzestan also took the field in this match with Hamed Lak, Abolfazl Razzaqpour, Sasan Ansari, Amin Saedi, Omid Hamedi-Far, Ehsan Mahroughi (79- Abolfazl Zadeh-Attar), Farshad Ahmadzadeh (54- Yousef Mazraeh), Vahid Amiri, Arman Akvan, Ghasem Latifi (79- Mohammad-Reza Keshavarzi) and Arash Akbarzadeh.
Persepolis, which needed the three points of this match to continue its lead and widen the gap with its pursuers, attacked the Khuzestani yellow-wearers' goal from the very beginning, but Mehdi Tartar's team did not have the strength to reach the goal.
The Tehran red-wearers advanced several times close to the opponent's penalty area and came into positions to threaten Hamed Lak's goal, but could not score. The Fooladis, too, although they cast a passing glance at the opponent's goal, could not create a serious chance.
The most important event of the first half was Mohammad Khodabandeh-Lou's injury in the 22nd minute, as he gave his place to Pouria Latififar.
In the second half, the slow and dull course of the two teams' play continued, and although Persepolis tried to bring itself close to the opponent's goal, its attacks effectively lacked the necessary bite.
In the middle of the second half, Mehdi Tartar tried to change the course of the game with the substitutions he made, and bringing on Sadeghi and Sergeev was among these measures.
In the 71st minute, in the first serious chance that came his way, Sergeev, in a strange act, sent the ball in a one-on-one situation with Hamed Lak to the highest spot over the goal, whereas with a side-footed shot he could have opened Foolad's goal. This was Persepolis's best chance in this match.
Afterwards, although Persepolis tried to score, it was Foolad that reached a goal through a former, well-regarded Persepolis player. In the 87th minute, the Fooladis arrived in Persepolis's penalty area on a quick attack, and a cut-back pass to the edge of the penalty area gave Vahid Amiri the chance to open his former team's goal with a low, powerful shot.
Afterwards, Persepolis's attacks, which had lacked bite throughout the whole match, could not unlock Foolad's goal, so the red-wearers lost three sensitive and influential points at their home stadium and now, with 20 points, see the teams Tractor, Sepahan and Esteghlal level on points with them, but Tractor, because of a postponed match, has the opportunity to become the sole leader of the Premier League.
The defeat against Foolad is Mehdi Tartar's second loss with Persepolis in the first 10 weeks of the Premier League competitions. An experienced head coach whose team fluctuates a lot and has not yet been able to reach acceptable tactical and performance stability.
Source: Mehr News Agency
