Saipa skipper sure of success

AFC - Saipa captain Ebrahim Sadeghi is confident that his team can pick up all three points when the Iran champions make their AFC Champions League home debut against UAE double winners Al Wasl.

Saipa kicked off their Group B campaign a week ago with a solid away performance at Al Kuwait, where they picked up a point from their 1-1 draw in the Kuwaiti capital.

Sadeghi though is expecting nothing less than three points from their clash at Tehran's Enghalab Stadium against the Dubai side, who went down 1-0 in their home opener against Iraq's Al Quwa Al Jawiya.

"We will beat Al Wasl easily," boasted the confident Saipa skipper.

"They lost to Al Quwa Al Jawiya in their opening game so they'll come here wanting to win.

“But we're the home side and we'll be battling to get all three points."

However, Saipa's preparations for the match have not been helped by the recent absence of coach Ali Daei.

The legendary striker, who was also recently appointed as Iran's national coach, has been under pressure to spend more time with the national team ahead of their upcoming friendly against Bahrain and next week's World Cup qualifier in Kuwait.

Unlike his captain, Daei is making no promises for a Saipa home win on Wednesday.

"There are no guarantees of winning when you're at home," said the 38-year-old.

"But we need to win all our home matches if we want to reach the quarter-finals."

There is some good news on the fitness front though with Daei able to call up midfielder Misagh Memarzadeh, who missed the match at Al Kuwait through injury.

Saipa are currently in mid-table in the Iranian league, nine points behind leaders Persepolis, although they have not been beaten in the league since December, a run of nine matches.

Form-wise, they are in much better shape than their opponents, who are in the bottom half of the UAE league table after managing only two wins in their last seven games.

Al Wasl have not played since their loss to Al Quwa Al Jawiya and arrived in the Iranian capital on Monday with a full-strength squad.

Having lost their home opener, coach Ze Mario knows that his team must get something from their visit to Tehran.

"I have said before that this is a very tough tournament and the defeat which we suffered at home has left us with no alternative but to win Wednesday's match in Iran or at least not lose it," said the Brazilian who led Saudi Arabia's Al Shabab to the last eight of the AFC Champions League in 2005.

"This game is very important and it will not be easy for us. It is very hard to win in Iran against an Iranian team but Al Ittihad Aleppo's win last week against Sepahan will hopefully give us the necessary determination we need to beat Saipa.

"Every game in the AFC Champions League is important and although we lost our first match, we still have five to play and no one knows what will happen in those matches."