TEHRANTIMES - Esteghlal coach Amir Ghalenoei said that they are well-prepared for the AFC Champions League group stage match against Al-Rayyan of Qatar.

The Qatari football team will host Esteghlal in ACL Group D in Doha’s Ahmed Bin Ali Stadium on Wednesday.

“First, I am happy to be here because I was playing in Qatar in 1986 when I was a member of Al Sadd. I hope that my teammates are good. After that, I came here as a coach of Iran nationalteam. I have a good knowledge of Qatar football,” Ghalenoei said in the pre-match news conference.  

“Esteghal are in group of death but we are here to win the match. We will have to stop their number 10 (Rodrigo Tabata) if we want to win the match. I think he is their key player,” he added.

“I know Al Rayyan is more powerful than last year but we are Esteghlal too. Esteghlal is a big team in Iran and Asia. We are not afraid of Al Rayyan and we want to beat them as we defeated them last year,” Ghalenoei concluded.

Esteghlal is in Group D of the AFC Champions League along with Al Ain of the United Arab Emirates and Al Hilal of Saudi Arabia.