Persepolis close out Zob Ahan with Alipour double
Persepolis saw off Zob Ahan 2:0 in the sixth round of the Persian Gulf Pro-League on Sunday, a result that kept them four points clear of the relegation zone while Zob Ahan drifted further into trouble. And here's the thing about these mid-table clashes — they rarely look like much on paper until someone breaks the deadlock.
A. Alipour did the damage in a single half-hour window, striking in the forty-second minute and adding a second just two minutes later to put the hosts ahead. P. Shahrabadi then closed the game out with a third goal in the sixty-fourth minute, a moment that shifted the entire complexion of the encounter. By then Zob Ahan had already shown their vulnerability, with A. Ghaderi picked up for a yellow card in the twenty-seventh minute.
We had called a home win at 53 per cent confidence before kick-off, and the match unfolded in a straightforward fashion that confirmed the assessment. Persepolis moved more sharply between the lines than Zob Ahan could contain, and the visitors' midfield simply could not match the tempo. To be fair, Zob Ahan had drawn three of their previous five games, but this was a different sort of fixture — one where structure matters more than anything else.
The substitutions told their own story, with Zob Ahan bringing on O. Urunov and I. Sergeev in the fifty-fifth minute, then adding O. Latifi, M. Ghaed Rahmati, and R. Jafari in quick succession. Persepolis responded with F. Esmaeili and P. Mokhtari at the eighty-fourth minute, though Mokhtari would later receive a yellow card of his own in the seventy-ninth minute. The visitors also brought on M. Khodabandelou and E. Majid, but the game had been decided long before then.
Persepolis sit fourth with ten points from five games — three wins, one draw, one defeat — while Zob Ahan occupy eleventh place on six points from a similar record. The result ended a run of two draws for the hosts and extended Zob Ahan's difficulty in finding a third win this season. By then it was clear that Persepolis would be the side moving forward with momentum.
