PLDC - Tehran, AC Milan's retired legends defeated Persepolis' legends 3-1 in Azadi Stadium in front of 65,000 cheering fans.

AC Milan visited Persepolis in Azadi Stadium with an entourage of their past legends. Persepolis featured their own legends from the past few decades, and both teams showcased an entertaining match for millions of fans in Iran and abroad.

The Italians started the scoring early, as Daniele Massaro had a one on one chance with Persepolis goalie Behrouz Soltani, and scored the first goal of the match in the first minute.

Naser Mohammadkhani's back passed the ball to Alireza Emamifar, who then scored the only goal for The Reds of Tehran in the 26th minute of the match.

Christian Lantignotti scored the second goal for Milan in the 50th, with a header from a corner kick.

In the 66th minute Stefano Eranio chipped the ball over the Persepolis keeper to make the scoreline 3-1 for the visitors.

Reza Shahroudi came off shortly after the start of the match in the second minute of action due to a back strain, and was replaced by Alireza Emamifar.

Although this was a friendly match, there were quite a few hard tackles, fouls and clashes. In the 15th minute Karim Bagheri jumped up to head the ball and crashed into Gennaro Gattuso, and knocked him to the ground for a few seconds.

In the 32nd minute of this highly viewed match, Mehdi Mahdavikia came on to replace Farshad Pious, and Pious took off his number 17 jersey and gave it to Mahdavikia. In a beautiful display of honour and love, Mohammad Panjali took off his captain armband and gave it to Mahdavikia; although Mahdavikia insisted that he should keep it, Panjali finally lovingly forced Mahdavikia to assume captaincy.

At the end of the match, the thousands of chanting fans cheered for Mehdi Mahdavikia and other Persepolis legends. Mahdavikia walked around the pitch for one last time, in a final embrace of the game that he loves.

Persepolis line-up in the first half:
Behrouz Soltani, Pejman Jamshidi, Mohammad Panjali, Karim Bagheri, Hamid Derakhshan, Reza Shahroudi (Alireza Emamifar 2'), Morteza Fanounizadeh, Farshad Pious (Mehdi Mahdavikia 32'), Mohsen Ashouri, Hamid Estili, Naser Mohammadkhani (Morteza Kermani Moghadam 30')
Coach: Ali Parvin

Persepolis line-up in the second half:
Vahid Ghelich (Nima Nakisa 59'), Mohammad Panjali (Younes Bahonar 58'), Ali Ansarian, Alireza Emamifar (Rahim Yousefi 69') Pejman Jamshidi (Mehrdad Minavand 58'), Reza Jabbari (Payan Raft 65'), Mehdi Mahdavikia, Behnam Abu Alghasempour, Morteza Kermani Moghadam (Edmund Bezik 63'), Hassan Shirmohammadi (Mojtaba Moharrami 75'), Mehdi Tartar

AC Milan line-up:
Sebastiano Rossi (Simone Braglia 46'), Franco Baresi, Boban (Ibrahim Ba 52'), Carbone (Christian Lantignotti  24'), Stefano Eranio, Alberigo Evani, Gattuso, Maldini, Massimo, Daniele Massaro, Dario Simic (Pancaro 56')
Coach: Franco Baresi

By: Arman Tamjidi