TEHRANTIMES - Esteghlal football team was held to a 1-1 draw against second-place Esteghlal Khouzestan in the 24th week of the Iran Professional League (IPL) in front of more than 25,000 fans at Ahvaz’s Ghadir Stadium on Sunday.

Meysam Majidi put Esteghlal in front in the 31st minute but Farshad Salarvand leveled the score with a wonderful long-range shot in the 73th minute.

Esteghlal remains at the IPL top with 44 points followed by 43-point Esteghlal Khouzestan.

Earlier on Sunday, 10-man Persepolis edged past Siah Jamegan 3-2 in the empty Azadi Stadium. Hossein Karimi opened the scoring for Siah Jamegan five minutes into the game but Mehdi Taremi leveled the score for Persepolis in the 40th minute.

In the 59th minute former Persepolis player Hamidreza Aliasgari was fouled inside the box by Persepolis goalie Sosha Makani and the referee showed a red card to Makani and also awarded a penalty to Siah Jamegan. Meysam Hosseini converted the penalty to make it 2-1 for the visiting team.

In the final twenty minutes of the game Persepolis had excellent performance and scored twice to complete a great comeback. Ali Alipour and Mehdi Taremi scored in 70th and 83th minute respectively to give the Reds the three vital points.

Elsewhere, Padideh defeated Esteghlal Ahvaz 2-0 and Naft Tehran defeated Rah Ahan 1-0.

Video of Iran Pro League week 24