Struggling Esteghlal seek Champions League revival&nbsp; <img border="0" src="http://www.persianleague.com/images/pic.gif" width="13" height="11">

AFC - Two-time Asian Club Championship winners Esteghlal will be hoping they can reverse their poor domestic form when they take on Neftchi of Uzbekistan in the first leg of the AFC Champions League's fourth qualifying round on Wednesday.

While progression to the lucrative 16-team group stage in the US$3 million tournament is the main focus, Esteghlal's coach Ronald Koch knows that after a poor start to the domestic campaign the wolves are gathering at his door.

After four rounds of the Iranian championship Esteghlal, who lost the title to bitter Tehran rivals Pirouzi on the last day of the 2001/02 season, have won just once.

A 3-1 victory away to Pas kicked off their season in fine style but this was followed by a 1-0 defeat by Sanat Naft - under the helm of former Esteghlal boss Mansour Pourheidari who won the Asian Club Championship with the Tehran giants as a player and a coach - and a 3-2 reverse to early season pace-setters Sepahan.

The run of defeats was halted after a 2-2 draw with Abomoslem on Friday but while chairman Ali Fatallahozadeh has publicly voiced his support for the former Bayer Leverkuesen and Besitkas assistant coach, Esteghlal's demanding fans are growing impatient with Koch.

Esteghlal have plenty of time to resurrect their league campaign although the same cannot be said of Neftchi.

With the Uzbekistan league approaching its climax, the five-time champions where trailing Pakhtakor by seven points after playing 27 of their 30 games. Meanwhile, the Tashkent side, who play Al Ahli of the UAE in the fourth qualifying round of the Champions League, had played 24 matches and look odds-on to add the league title to the FA Cup they won by defeating Neftchi 6-3 earlier this year.

Neftchi progressed to the final qualifying round in emphatic fashion, defeating Al Ahli Sana'a 2-1 in Yemen and 6-0 in Fergana in round three, while Esteghlal's 3-0 aggregate victory over Al Faysali of Jordan was not as convincing as the result suggests.

Esteghlal or Neftchi will join three other qualifiers from the west zone, four from the east zone and eight seeded teams in the group stages which will be held in March.

The AFC Champions League, which was launched in August, replaces the Asian Club Championship, the Asian Cup Winners' Cup, and the Asian Super Cup.