Tractor Sazi falls to Al Nasr in AFC Champions League

Iranian professional soccer club Tractor Sazi Tabriz, also known as Tractor, has gone down to Al Nasr of the United Arab Emirates in the first leg of its round of 16 encounter at the 2016 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Champions League.

Tractor Sazi suffered a 1-4 loss from the Dubai-based team at the end of a match played at the multi-purpose al-Maktoum Stadium in Dubai on Tuesday evening.

Soccer players from both teams had no intention of submission ever since 39-year-old Japanese referee Ryuji Sato blew on his whistle and signaled the start of the tense, dramatic and passionate game.

Al Nasr’s Brazilian striker Nilmar Honorato da Silva, commonly known as Nilmar, sustained an injury in the 11th minute as a result, and had to be taken off the pitch. Salem Saleh Mussallam Salem al-Rejaibi took his place.

The Persians had the first golden scoring opportunity just then, when forward Farzad Hatami aimed his header wide of the target.

The hosts exerted a spell of pressure on the visitors’ goal later on, and Tractor Sazi’s defense did not manage to seal off Al Nasr’s cross from the left sufficiently.

The ball finally fell to defender Ahmed al-Yassi at turn of the first quarter, and he unleashed a low right-foot shoot that beat Tractor Sazi goalkeeper Akhbari at his near post and put the Emirati team 1-0 ahead.

Five minutes from the breather, substitute striker Rejaibi headed in from close range and doubled Al Nasr’s lead.

After the break, Tractor Sazi players returned to action seemingly regained in their composure.

They eventually nailed the opener just before the hour mark, when Brazilian footballer Augusto César dos Santos Moreira, commonly known as Augusto, struck the crossbar with his shot from nearly 40 yards out.

Amir Ghalenoei’s side then built up pressure in pursuit of an equalizer. The desire, however, cost Tractor Sazi dearly as the Tabriz-based team conceded the third goal in the 77th minute, when Rejaibi netted a brace.

Defender Mahmoud Khamis sealed Al Nasr’s victory one minute from the regular time, when Tractor goalkeeper Mohammadreza Akhbari had little chance to push his right-foot strike from 30 yards to safety.

“Tonight was very hard and the result doesn’t reflect the difficulty of the match. We had several difficulties playing against such a strong team but in the end our fighting spirit prevailed,” Al Nasr’s manager Ivan Jovanovic said after the match.

“The encounter is not over yet as there is still another match to play in Iran and we must prepare well for that. This big result tonight doesn’t mean that we have secured our place in the quarter-finals. We must also ensure we put in a strong performance and get a good result when we play away next week,” Jovanovic pointed out.

“We controlled much of the match and it was strange that Al Nasr only created four chances and scored from those chances. I have a lot of confidence that we will be able to make a good comeback in the second leg,” Tractor Sazi’s manager Ghalenoei commented.

“The blame [for the defeat] is with our defensive line today as they didn’t follow the instructions. That cost us four goals. However, we still have a chance to make a comeback in the second leg and hopefully our players will have a better match at home,” he said.

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