Sharjah found itself behind after only nine minutes at the Sharjah Stadium on Tuesday as Ali Alipour from Persepolis, gave the visiting team the lead before Mohammed Khalfan leveled the tie for the home side.

Alipour struck again on 27 minutes but Ryan Mendes scored the equalizer just before the half-time break for the teams to share the points.

Al Yassi praised his players for fighting back, adding that a point was good following the opening defeat against Al Taawoun last week.

“We had a good performance against a strong team,” said Al Yassi. “The match was quick and despite playing at home, the draw was positive if we consider the circumstances that we faced.”

“We worked very hard with the players in order to recover from the previous defeat (1-0 to Al Taawoun FC),” said the 42-year-old coach, adding, “The players had a positive performance and the result was good.”

“I’m happy that the reaction of the players was good and hopefully, we can maintain our performance in the coming matches and get positive results,” Al Yassi stated.

The post Sharjah Happy with Persepolis Draw appeared first on Iran News Daily.

The Asian Football Confederation, AFC, has reportedly banned Iran from hosting Champions League football matches, so Iranian clubs have decided to quit the tournament.

A series of reports have suggested the AFC sent a letter to the Football Federation Islamic Republic of Iran (FFIRI) telling them that they would not be hosting AFC Champions League matches for the foreseeable future.

Instead, any match featuring an Iranian team would be played in a different country.

In a meeting held on Saturday in the presence of the Iranian Sports Ministry and the presidents of the four football clubs – Persepolis, Sepahan, Shahr Khodro and Esteghlal in Iran Football Federation’s headquarters, the decision was made by them to withdraw from the competition if the confederation wants them to play in neutral venue.

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