Dubai: Al Nasr coach Ivan Jovanovic says his side were more effective over two legs after beating Iran’s Tractor Sazi 5-4 on aggregate to reach the Asian Champions League quarter-finals for the first time in their history on Tuesday.
The Blue Wave may have lost the Last 16 second leg 3-1 away in Tabriz’s packed 80,000 capacity Sahand Stadium, but they progressed thanks to last week’s 4-1 first leg win at home in Dubai.
“As I said before the match, Tractor Sazi are a very powerful team,” said Jovanovic. “In football, if you don’t deserve it, you will not go through to the next round.
“Perhaps Tractor Sazi attacked more during the games but we were the more effective team,” added the Serbian, who is most famous for getting Cypriot minnows APOEL to the quarter-finals of the Uefa Champions League in 2011/12 before crashing out to Real Madrid the year Chelsea beat Bayern Munich on penalties in the final.
Salem Saleh fired the visitors ahead with his third goal over the two legs after tapping home Jonathan Pitroipa’s cross at the back post on 16 minutes.
This left Tractor Sazi needing five goals to overturn the deficit. And that had seemed impossible, but Farzad Hatami pulled the hosts level just after the interval, Mohammad Iranpourian put them in front on the hour, and Hatami added a second to extend their lead with 17 minutes to spare, making for a nail-biting finish.
Hatami’s first goal came after he barged his way into the box and hooked onto a half volley from a bouncing long ball to equalise on 47 minutes. Iranpourian then blasted the hosts in front on 61 minutes after being teed up on the edge of the area. And Hatami added his second and Tractor Sazi’s third after turning his marker outside the area and slotting into the bottom corner on 73 minutes.
Despite this second half onslaught, Al Nasr held on overall to continue their unprecedented run on the continent. This is the first time they’ve reached the knock-out stages of the tournament in three appearances — having twice previously failed to get out of the group in 2012 and 2013.
“I congratulate Al Nasr on this victory and I also thank the fans for their support,” said Tractor Sazi coach Amir Ghalenoei. “We should have scored five or six goals but it didn’t happen. Despite our good performance, we didn’t get the result we needed. This is one of my bad days. We played good football but couldn’t emerge victorious.”
Al Nasr now await news of their opponent in the last eight with the quarter-final first leg to be played on August 23 or 24 and the second to played on September 13 or 14.
