Umm Salal dominated at Qatar Sports Club and Fabio Cesar’s strike midway through the second half proved decisive as the hosts moved up to second in Group C with six points, one behind leaders Al Ittihad of Saudi Arabia and four ahead of third-placed Al Jazira of the United Arab Emirates.
“We went into the game determined to get the victory in order to maintain our chances in the competition but it was not easy because we were playing against a strong team and it became very hard in the last minutes of the game,” said the Frenchman
“The main reason behind our drop in performance in the last few minutes was the high balls of Esteghlal which put more pressure on our players who were tired late in the game.
“But our team deserved this win and I want to congratulate the players for their form today. The six points we have will strengthen our chances of competing for a spot in the next round.
“The win against Esteghlal gives us a chance to remain in contention and we must carry on with our good performances in our upcoming matches.”
Esteghlal are bottom of the group with only one point from three games but coach Amir Ghalenoei has not given up hope of reaching the knockout stage.
“We lost tonight because we didn’t take advantage of the many chances that we had in the game. I’m not satisfied with the result but I’m happy with the performance of the players,” said the ex-Iran national coach.
“We created a lot of chances and we had good control on the field but the problem that we had is the final touch and I believe that the referee didn’t help us with his decisions.
“We had clear chances to score but the referee denied us from scoring. Getting four or five chances is not easy but unfortunately we didn’t score any goals.
“We still have three more games of which we will play two at home. Taking six points from those games will help us to advance to the next round.”