4/25/2006
Afshin Afshar, lastkick.com

Madanchi stars as Perspolis move to the Cup Quarterfinals

Perspolis of Tehran defeated Abu-Moslem of Mashad to move into the Quarter Finals of Hazfi (Elimination) Cup.

The hero of this game was Perspolis striker Mehrzad Madanchi who scored a hat trick, and the goat was Abu-Moslem’s goalkeeper Mehdi Sabeti whose mistake cost his team a place in the quarterfinals.

Perspolis were coming off a series of weak performances in the league competition, and facing a red hot Abu-Moslem the general consensus was that they would not make it through on this day. However, from the starting kickoff they looked like a rejuvenated team. Their movement on and off the ball had shades of Dutch influence in it indicating coach Arie Haan’s emphasize on modern football.

Fifteen minutes into the game, Madanchi received the ball on the top of the box and created room for a left footed shot that opened the score.

His second goal came shortly after thanks to a nice buildup by Shays Rezaei and Mohammadreza Mamani who found Madanchi in space. Madanchi did not hesitate to pull the trigger and put Perspolis up by a pair.

The game somewhat settled after Perspolis’s second goal, and Abu-Moslem created a couple of chances of their own. They were unlucky when Anderanik Teymourian’s shot rocked the woodwork and bounced back.

With a few minutes left in the half, Haan was ejected from the sideline for sharing his opinion on one call too many with the referee Khodadad Afsharian who clearly was not in the mood to hear it!

The ejection seemed to unnerve Perspolis and in the ensuing confusion Younes Graeili pulled one back for Abu-Moslem.

In the second half Abu-Moslem worked very hard to level the game. They were rewarded when Graeili beat the offside trap by a perfectly timed move and beat Perspolis goalkeeper Mehdi Mohammadi for the equalizer.

Both teams settled into a more cautious mode after that, but then around minute 70 Madanchi tried his luck with a long distance shot that Sabeti should have handled, but unfortunately for him he fumbled the ball and let it bounce into the net.

The game ended 3:2 for the Reds who now move into the Cup quarterfinals. At stake for them is a place in next year’s AFC Champion’s League.

The victory also capped the day for hero Mehrzad Madanchi and teammate Javad Kazemian who earlier had received their invitation to Team Melli’s provisional camp in preparation for this summer’s World Cup in Germany.