Al-Raya: Al-Gharafa Seeks to Correct Course Against Esteghlal

Qatar's Al-Raya newspaper, on the eve of the Al-Gharafa vs. Esteghlal match, wrote about the high importance of this game for Qatar's representative and the tough tactical clash between Pedro Martínez and Sohrab Bakhtiarizadeh.

According to "Varzesh Se", the famous Qatari newspaper wrote in a report about tonight's critical battle that Qatar's Al-Gharafa football team will hold its second match in the first stage of the Asian Elite League tonight, Monday, and will host Esteghlal of Iran from 21:15 Doha time and 21:45 Tehran time at Thani Bin Jassim Stadium.

This match is very important for Gharafa. The representative of Qatar faces a strong opponent in his home field and in front of his fans, and at the same time, he wants to make up for the defeat of the first week against Al Hilal of Saudi Arabia and enter the competition for one of the top ranks of the unified table of this tournament.

The technical staff of Al Gharafa led by Portuguese Pedro Martinez has opened a special account on the reaction of his players in this match. Al-Gharafa players want to satisfy their fans once again after two recent defeats, one in the Qatar League in the last three days and the other in the Asian Elite League three weeks ago.

Al-Gharafa has many impressive pieces for this match. Yassin Brahimi, the Algerian star of this team, along with his compatriot Adam Onas, who recently joined Al-Gharafa, Farjani Sassi, Seydou Sano and Ayoub Al-Alawi are among the most important players that Pedro Martinez can use in the match against Esteghlal.

On the other side, Sohrab Bakhtiarizadeh, the head coach of Esteghlal, wants to confirm the strong start of his team in the first round. In its first match, Esteghlal managed to defeat Al-Sad with a score of 3-0, and now, relying on effective players such as Roozbe Cheshmi, Yaser Asani, Alireza Kushki and Saleh Hardani, they will go to the field to win the second victory.

The two teams know each other a lot, because they have faced each other several times before. Their last match dates back to the first week of the 2024-25 Asian Elite League season. For this reason, the tactical battle of the two technical staffs on the side of the field is expected to be as hard and intense as the competition of the players on the field.

Final practice at Al Gharafa Stadium

Al-Gharafa held its last practice before the meeting with Esteghlal at Thani Bin Jassim Stadium at 18:00 yesterday. This training session was conducted under the supervision of Pedro Martinez and with the presence of all players.

As expected, Gharafa's final training session was light and lasted less than an hour to prevent the players from getting tired before the match. The team had gone through the main and high-pressure training the night before for about two hours, and during it, Martinez defined the main lines of his team's tactical plan to face Esteghlal.

Esteghlal also held its only training session in Doha at 21:15 last night at Thani Bin Jassim Stadium. This exercise was done exactly at the time of the match, and Sohrab Bakhtiarizadeh reviewed the last technical points during it and finished his team's preparation to face Al-Gharafa.

The fourth confrontation between Esteghlal and Gharafa

Tonight's match is the fourth meeting between Esteghlal and Al Gharafa in the history of the Asian Champions League. The two teams faced each other for the first time in 2010 and in the old format of the Asian Champions League, in the third and fourth weeks of the group stage.

Esteghlal defeated Al-Gharafa with a score of 3-0 in the match held at Azadi Stadium. The return match between the two teams at Thani Bin Jassim Stadium also ended with a 1-1 draw.

The third match between the two teams was held at Shahrada Shahr Quds Stadium in Tehran and in the first week of the Asian Elite League in the 2024-25 season. Esteghlal defeated Al Gharafa with three goals in that match, so that in the previous three encounters with this Qatari team, they have two wins and one draw.