PLDC - Tehran, After the first day of action, the coaches of the teams that played were interviewed and shared some words with the press.

The head coach of Persepolis, Ali Daei said, "In my opinion, we didn't play well by any means, and we played under a lot of pressure. In both periods the game was even on both sides, but our opponents were able to score from a dead ball. Naft benefited from playing intelligently and gained three points."

Naft's head coach, Yahya Golmohammadi said, " We felt the pulse of the game and most of the game was under our control; we knew what we wanted and reached our goals with planning and execution."

Zob Ahan's head coach, Luka Bonacic said, "We played our weakest match so far but won. There were other games that we should have won, that we didn't, but this is the nature of football. "

Malavan's head coach, Dragan Skocic said, "As you can probably tell, we played well with a single striker. We missed many opportunities and didn't convert our chances. In the second half we changed our system (formation) and added an extra striker, but we lost our chemistry. Zob Ahan played like always, and relied on counter-attacks."

Fajr Sepasi's head coach, Gholam Hossein Peyrovani said, "If we didn't lose a player to a red car, we could have won this match. I am satisfied with a draw against Tractor Sazi, because this Tabrizi team many good players and they gained six points in two matches in Esfahan."

Tractor Sazi's head coach, Majid Jalali said, "We lost many opportunities. I can no longer put up with our team ruining so many chances, time after time. Today, Fajr Sepasi hustled and were able to gain a point."

Saipa's head coach, Engin Firat said, "Mes was an excellent team and they defended well, but this is football and sometimes a single opportunity can decide the outcome. I don't know why people are so much focused on gaining points in Iranian football; luckily, we we able to gain favourable results from our match gainst Mes."

Mes Kerman's head coach, Mahmoud Yavari said, " The game wasn't technical and the players just pointlessly ran in the field. In the coming weeks we are going to make up for lost points. We are still at the beginning of the season and we must harmonize to reach better results in the future."

Gostaresh Foolad's head coach, Rasoul Khatibi said, "On my own behalf, I would like to apologize to our fans. We played better but the results did not favour us. Our opponents played a closed match and took advantage of counter-attacks... The referee stopped the game a lot, but maybe this is his style of officiating. In the first half he didn't call a penalty for us."

Damash Gilan's head coach, Afshin Nazemi said, "We played very well. Both teams made efforts on each-other's nets and aimed to win. We were able to compensate for our less than favourable past results... We hope to continue gaining good results and prove the legitimacy of football in Rasht."

Sepahan's head coach, Zlatko Kranjcar said, "It was a good game and I would like to congratulate our players. However, I would also like to congratulate Saba's players who played true football. Our players were able to come to their senses and recover from a bad loss to Fajr Sepasi, and they kept our chances of contending for the title alive."

Saba's head coach, Mohammad Mayeli Kohan said, "We didn't start the game well and handed two goals over to Sepahan. When you are down two goals, it is difficult to come back."

Esteghlal Khuzestan's coach, Abdollah Veisi said, "The refereeing was to our disadvantage. We had many opportunities to score, and because we were attacking and our formation was open, they were able to score on us."

Foolad's head coach, Hossein Faraki said, "Thank God, we were able to gain three points and I would like to congratulate our fans and players. Each team got what they deserved. Esteghlal (Khuzestan) started well and surprised us... In this match we had several mistakes in our defense and we must fix these problems."

By: Arman Tamjidi