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By Majeed Panahi

PLDC - Esteghlal Tehran and Perspolis, the most popular teams of Iran played in front of a capacity 90,000 fans in Azadi on Thursday, who surely left the ground disappointed with the result and the performance of their beloved teams.
Bearing in mind the abysmal performance of the last few matches, both teams started with purpose and the tempo of the game picked up from the early minutes. Perspolis had better control of the game and the midfield. The chances war far and a few with the most serious ones going
Perspolis' way. Jabbari , a player who thrilled the crowed on his debut last year and continued his good performances early this season, had the best opportunities. However, his form and confidence has suffered lately leaving Parvin no choice but to bench him in some matches.
Jabbari's ferocious shot was well saved by Tabatabaei after he closely dribbled two Esteghlal players. On another occasion, a 1-2 with Abolghassimpour left Jabbari with a clear shot on Tabatabaei, but his final shot was too weak to bother the in-form Esteghlal Keeper.
Esteghlal did not sit back though and they had a few chances themselves,
from Navazi and the header of Pashazadeh. Hasheminasab playing as a forward had a few good moves but there was no coordination with Momenzadeh as they was far apart and lacked understanding. Esteghlal defenders were tenacious and performed well in this half, especially Bakhtiyarizadeh and Pashazadeh who is approaching his ideal form.
In the second half, the story changed with Esteghlal taking the initiative with quick offensives moves on Perspolis. But all their efforts were un-rewarded due to poor finishing and solid defenses of Perspolis. Reza Jabbari repeated his first half scene when he shot a cracker towards Tabatabai's goal, but Taba saved brilliantly for a corner. However, the most glorious chance of the game by far fell to Behnam Abolghassimpour. After a blunder by Esteghlal defense, Abolghassimpour found himself in a one-on-one with only Taba to beat.
But.without much effort he shot the ball wide of Taba and missed a golden chance that Perspolis could regret for a long time.
Esteghlal had a few efforts themselves, but nothing too serious to change the result. Fatemi was drafted in instead of Hasheminasab to increase the offensive line, but he was no where near scoring or threatening the solid Perspolis defenses. The crosses sent by Navazi were all cleared by Perspolis players or wasted by Esteghlal forwards.
In the last minute of the game, a seriously flawed Nikbakht had his marching order by Manuel Costa, the Portuguese referee who awarded him a red card. This was after Nikbakht, who already had a yellow card, obstructed Ansarian from playing throw-in and then tried to handle the ball after Ansarian finally managed to throw the ball.
The furious uncalled reaction from Bakhtiyarizadeh , who was the best Esteghlal player, and Fekri who attacked the referee and physically mishandled him, could have easily resulted in a couple of extra red cards for them. But,,,the referee was wiser than that and let it go.
At the end, with extra 5 minutes added, no team could score and the match ended 0-0 for Esteghlal to keep the two points margin at the top , while Perspolis fans were left wondering , what it takes for their team to score?
The match although lively and fast paced, lacked tactical content. Both of the team's players took too much time on the ball, and were slow in utilizing the spaces. The final balls were disappointing and most of the serious attacks (although a few) were result of opposition's defensive errors rather than well planned plays.
It is always prudent to mention that Azadi grass and pitch is still in a sorry state with the ball bouncing badly preventing the teams from distributing the ball efficiently.
Esteghlal was the happier of the two team at the end, although the points difference between them and the rest is decreasing. But, it is a hardly likely that other teams in the league have the character and the strength to overtake them in the few matches left. Bar Perspolis, the other clubs falter when it counts and rarely take the chance of toppling the big two. The threat to Esteghlal/Perspolis domination of Iran's football is still feeble which does not auger well for the National
Team.

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