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AFC - Oston Uronov was the star for Uzbekistan’s Navbahor after they came from behind to beat Nassaji Mazandaran of Islamic Republic of Iran 2-1 in the AFC Champions League™ 2023/24 on Monday.
The result took unbeaten Navbahor to seven points in Group D as they edged closer to a place in the Round of 16.
It was a high octane start from Navbahor, as they looked to play the ball forward as early as possible with a couple of long passes behind Nassaji’s defence but were let down by the poor control of their forwards.
Slowly but surely Nassaji got into the game after weathering the early home pressure but an injury to Mahmoud Rahmati in the 23rd minute, resulting in the player being replaced by Mehrdad Abdi, swung the momentum back in favour of the home team.
Against the run of play, Nassaji took the lead in the 44th minute. A mix-up between Azimjon Akhmedov and Ivanovic gifted Mohammadrez Azadi a clear run at Navbahor’s goal and he expertly put the ball past Utkir Yusupov to send the visitors into the break on a high.
To their credit, Navbahor came out with purpose in the second half and their relentless pressure forced Nassaji into making mistakes, with a costly one happening in the 52nd minute.
Saber Hardani was initially shown a yellow card for a reckless challenge on Jamshid Boltaboev but following a VAR check, referee Salman Falahi showed Hardani a red card instead.
But Uronov was not to be denied five minutes later, exchanging passes with Iskanderov before dancing his way into Nassaji’s penalty box and planting a low shot past a stranded Mazaheri to level proceedings.