Esteghlal joy after Sadd victory

Sadd coach Luka Peruzovic was left ruing a mix up that saw his side play with ten men for the opening exchanges, but for his Esteghlal counterpart Ronald Koch, the win was all about taking chances when it mattered. "In the past in the league and in the qualifying stages of the Champions League we have been creating chances but our effectiveness was not so good but now nearly 80% of the chances we make we score.

"We may have only had a few chances but we took them and that's what makes an excellent football team," said the German.

Koch's side opened the scoring in the 6th minute when Ahmad Momenzadeh stole possession from a dithering Fabian Sibot and knocked the ball into the path of Ali Samereh. Samereh, who spent last season in Italy with Perugia, knew exactly what he wanted to do and within seconds of receiving the pass drilled a stunning 25-yard strike past Sadd goalkeeper Ahmad Khalil Al Kaldi and into the top left of the net.

Sadd midfielder Saud Al Shammari came close to drawing the eight-time Qatar champions level in the 27th minute with a scuffed shot that went closer than Esteghlal 'keeper Seyed Tabatabaei probably thought it would.

The Esteghlal duo of Momenzadeh and Samereh combined well again ten minutes later with a neat one-two that cut through the Sadd defence with alarming ease. Once again Momenzadeh loaded the gun and Samereh pulled the trigger, but Al Kaldi's sharp reflexes denied the Esteghlal forward his second goal.

Al Sadd came out strongly in the second half with Abdul Kader Keita firing wide 25 seconds after the Qataris kicked-off, while Sergio Ricardo's curling free-kick was comfortably held by Tabatabaei five minutes later.

Keita was easily Sadd's stand-out player, not because of the Cote d'Ivoire international's peroxide blonde hair but by the threat he was posing to the Esteghlal goal. This was particularly evident in the 58th minute when he waltzed past three defenders and unleashed a powerful shot, which was superbly saved by Tabatabaei.

Just as Sadd's equalizer was looking more and more likely Esteghlal doubled their advantage in the 64th minute when an unmarked Rasoul Khatibi swept Sirous Dinmohammadi's crossfield pass into the net.