First, congrats to Al Duhail and Al sadd for their win in the first leg. Second, do not want to make excuses but Esteghlal lost almost all of its key players from last year like Majid Hosseini, Omid Ebrahimi, Omid Noorafkan, Mame Thiam, Server Djeparov, etc. Perspolis lost many key players (Vahid Amiri, Farshad Ahmadzadeh, Sadegh Moharrami, Mohsen Mosalman, etc) and was not able to sign any player due to transfer ban. FIFA rejected Perspolis request to lift transfer ban. (https://financialtribune.com/articl...jects-persepolis-request-to-lift-transfer-ban) Personally I am happy those Iranian players like Hosseini, Amiri, Moharrami, Noorafkan, etc. decided to go overseas because that is what I personally prefer for our players. Anyway congrats again.
I think AFC need to create the Asian equivalent of the Europa League to increase matches between big and small countries.
No posts from Iranian fans since Persepolis lost in the final. Perspolis did everything they wanted. They postponed 4 league games to play the final with fresher legs. Their opponent played a league game 3 days before the 1st leg and 4 days before the 2nd leg yet Perspolis lost. I feel sorry for Iranian fans. They are by far the most passionate fans in Asia but Iran has won nothing in the last 25 years. Last glory by competition Code: WC Ro16 Asian Cup final ACL title Australia 2006 2015 2014 Iran None 1976 1993 Japan 2018 2011 2018 Korea 2010 2015 2016 Saudi Arabia 1994 2007 2005 Iran is the worst in every competition unfortunately. By the way, the strength gap between east and west doesn't seem that small. Since AFC introduced the strange east vs west final format in 2014, east has been superior to west with a record of 5 wins, 5 ties and 0 losses.The semi-final in the east zone is like the de facto final for east Asian teams.
I did not follow football much after the last World Cup. I do not know whether Persepolis postponed any league match for ACL final or not. However I would have been happier if someone also mentioned that Perspolis was banned from two transfer windows (https://financialtribune.com/articl...jects-persepolis-request-to-lift-transfer-ban). They were not able to sign any player in last two seasons and lost many key players as well such as Amiri, Moharrami, Mosalman, Taremi, Rezaeian, Ahmadzadeh, etc. They did not have even single reliable player on the bench for the final.
Plus Persepolis had injured players like Ansari, Mahini, Kamyabi Nia, Alisha, Khalilzadeh and Rabihkhah. Ansari, Kamyabi Nia, and Khalilzadeh played despite injury so Ansari busted his knee and will be missing for 6 months. Khalilzadeh needs surgery on his neck and Kamyabinia needs surgery on his back. Persepolis didn't have enough senior players to fill the bench and field for last 6 matches so they used u21 and u19 players from youth teams. Persepolis didn't post pone 4 matches for final. 3 matches were post poned in general in 3 months for 1/8, semi finals and final, because the Iranian league matches, Iranian cup matches and numerous Iranian national team camps had conflicts with ACL. One of the matches was not post pone right before the first leg of final in Japan resulted in knee injury of Mahini and minor injury of 2 more players. There was huge pressure from Iranian NT manager, fans and media on Persepolis to not take ACL seriously and send their best players to national team camp to get ready for friendlies. Persepolis fans who supported club parcipition in ACL over national team camps were branded as traitors and unpatriotic, so much that the other fans bring Japanese flags to the stadium to tease Persepolis fans till now. Iranian national team Potugese assistant manager was spoted celebrating after Persepolis lost ACL title in Azadi stadium. Club rivalry is above many things in Iran. Forget about players and staff not being paid for 6 months and their ACL award has not been received as well. How much can we expect from a club?! Past is the past. No one will remember these details in future. All just know Persepolis was the runner up of ACL 2018.