TEHRAN – Esteghlal head coach Sohrab Bakhtiarizadeh said that the difference between his team and Shabab Al Ahli came down to two decisive goal-scoring moments, in which the Emirati side showed greater professionalism and managed to score.<\/p>\n
Speaking at the post-match press conference following Esteghlal\u2019s 2\u20130 defeat to Shabab Al Ahli of the United Arab Emirates, Bakhtiarizadeh said: \u201cMy players gave everything they had today. We could have performed well and earned points, as we did in previous matches, although we knew we were facing a difficult challenge.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have played several demanding matches over the past two months. I apologize to our supporters, and we will do everything we can to make up for this defeat,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cThe way we played in the second half did not suggest that we were heading for a defeat,\u201d Bakhtiarizadeh stated.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cThe difference between us and Shabab Al Ahli was in two goal-scoring situations. Their players acted more professionally in those moments and managed to find the back of the net.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cWe also created scoring opportunities, but we lacked precision in front of goal. It was natural for us to play deeper because we were playing away from home,\u201d he went on to say.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cOur aim was to deny the opposition space. If Shabab Al Ahli had traveled to Tehran to play at Azadi Stadium, they probably would have spent much of the match defending deeper as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only negative aspect of the match was the refereeing. I have never seen officiating like this at this level of football,\u201d Bakhtiarizadeh concluded. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TEHRAN – Esteghlal head coach Sohrab Bakhtiarizadeh said that the difference between his team and Shabab Al Ahli…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":949164,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-949163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/949163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=949163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/949163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/949164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=949163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=949163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=949163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}