Three Iranian Clubs in Asian Champions League Elite: Which Team Has the Better Outlook?

Results from Matchday Two of the Asian Champions League once again highlighted the differing situations of Iran's three representatives: from performances that boosted hopes for continuing in the competition to points that could gain greater importance in the weeks ahead.

The results of the second week of Asia once again revealed the difference in the conditions of the three representatives of Iran; From the performance that raised hopes for the continuation of the competition to the points that could become more important in the coming weeks.

Ambassador Arjan - Sports Group: The second week of the Elite League and the Asian Champions League ended last night so that the Asian club competitions are heating up little by little. Three representatives of Iran also played against their opponents in the games of the second week, and one win, one draw and one loss was their share in the second competition. This performance was the same as the first week.

In a report, we have analyzed the performance of Esteghlal, Tractor and Golgohar in the second week of Asian club football.

Esteghlal with Sohrab Bakhtiarizadeh has had a stormy start in Asia, as if they want to secure their place as one of the 8 teams advancing to the elimination stage of the elite league, so that they can play safely and without stress in the final weeks.

In the second week of the elite league, Esteghlal defeated another Qatari team to show that Sohrab knows well how to defeat the teams of this country on the Persian Gulf. They sent Al-Saad to Doha with three goals in Basra Stadium in the first week, this time they faced Al-Gharafa in Doha.

Although it was not as easy and comfortable as Basra in Doha, Bakhtiarizadeh and his students beat Al-Gharafa 2-1 to set a record of 100 points in the first 2 games. With 2 wins from 2 games and 6 points, Esteghlal has a good reserve for promotion from the first weeks. They are in the west region after Al-Ain and only because of the goal difference of the second team in the 12-team table of the Asian Elite League.

Except Al-Ain and Esteghlal, 2 other teams, namely Al-Hilal and Shabab Al-Ahli, have 6 points and the competition at the top of the table is closely followed.

Now Esteghlal, which has a key player named Yaser Asani, is easily passing one obstacle after another, should be ready to play against Shabab Al-Ahli in the third week on Tuesday, November 5. The match between the two teams that have won 2 of their previous 2 games will be interesting and close.

The presence of Iranian players such as Sardar Azmoun and Saeed Ezzatollahi alongside Reza Kandipour in the Shabab Al-Ahli lineup will make this team's game with Esteghlal reach the peak of sensitivity and, of course, attraction.

Tractor, however, seems to be the opposite of Esteghlal, and their engine, unlike last season, seems to have not yet started in Asia. They started the new elite league season with a defeat against Shabab Al-Ahly in Dubai and hoped to make up for it in the second week, especially since this point loss in the first weeks makes it difficult for them to advance and in the last games they have to hit the water and fire and keep an eye on the results of other teams to be one of the teams that make it to the elimination stage.

That's why Javad Nekonam and his students counted on three points in the second week's game against Qatar North, which was a weaker team than Tractor's first opponent, to make up for the loss!

However, Traktor's troubles had started before the start of the game, where instead of a 2 and a half hour flight from Tehran to Muscat, due to flight restrictions, they had to take a Marco Polo journey from Tehran to Najaf, from Najaf to Baghdad and from Baghdad to Muscat for 18 hours!

This tiring and long journey took the tractor's energy so that they could not be the team they expected against Al Shamal at the Muscat Stadium.

The only representative of Iran in the AFC Champions League 2, unlike the first game, was left empty-handed in the second week until they hit the hard ground in the second game. Golgohar, who is in group B with Al Jazeera Emirates, Al Muharraq Bahrain and Arkadag Turkmenistan, was able to stop Al Jazeera in the first week, an acceptable result that was achieved in the first Asian game of this team.

The second week and the second game were not to their taste. Instead of playing in Manama, they played in Dubai against Al Muharraq in Bahrain and lost 2-0 to return to Sirjan empty-handed.

Iran and Qatar's competition to maintain their position in the Asian quota table has entered a more sensitive stage; The results of the second week of the competition highlighted the role of an Iranian representative in changing the equations.

The competitions of the second week of the Asian Elite League in the western region were followed by different results for the representatives of Iran. Esteghlal secured its position among the top teams by defeating Qatar's Al-Gharafa, Al-Ain Emirates remained on top with a big-goal victory, and Tractor found more difficult conditions to continue the competition by stopping against Al-Shamal.

Esteghlal Tehran football team will face Tractor Tabriz in the eighth week of the premier football league.