Sepahan Celebrates FA Title

MehrNews- Sepahan lifted the trophy of the four-sided tournament of Iran’s Football Association here Friday. The yellow-clad Isfahani side beat Pas 3-1 in Takhti Stadium, southeast of Tehran.

Sepahan, champion of the second Iran Pro League, opened the scoring in the 53rd minute when Seyed Mahdi Seyed Salehi netted.


Substitute skipper of Sepahan made it 2-0 in the 21st minute. He escaped the offside trap, dribbled past Pas goalkeeper in a man-to-man challenge and patted the ball into an empty net.

Pas pulled one back three minutes later when substitute Behnam Abolqassempour sent a rebound past Sepagan keeper Ershad Youssefi.

The IPL champion celebrated the third four minutes from the normal time. Morteza Hashemzadeh sent a low cross Bezik was waiting for near the far post but former defender of Persepolis, Behrouz Rahbarifard, slipped to lead it into his own net.

Earlier in the third-place playoff, Esteqlal defeated Al Wasl of the United Arab Emirates 3-2.

Esteqlal took the lead in the 20th minute as Alireza Vahedi-Nikbakht headed home a Mohammad Navazi corner.

Former striker of Esteqlal and top goalscorer of Al Wasl, Farhad Majidi, fired an angled shot just inside the penalty area, finding the left corner net of the blues in the 34th minute.

Nikbakht scored his own and side’s second in the 61st minute, heading home again a superb cross from Navazi.

The blues hit the third eight minutes later as advancing defender Firouz Qorbani’s header kissed the net after touching Al Wasl goalkeeper’s hand.

Al Wasl minimized the gap by its second goal scored by Tareq Dervish, who headed home a Majidi cross.