AFC - Coach Amir Ghalenoei has called on his Esteghlal players to treat each of their remaining AFC Champions League fixtures “like a final” starting with Tuesday’s clash with United Arab Emirates side Al Jazira at Azadi Stadium.

Semi-finalists last year and two-time Asian champions, the Iran league title holders have struggled in this year’s edition of the continental competition and have suffered back-to-back 1-0 defeats by both Al Shabab of Saudi Arabia and Qatar’s Al Rayyan.

And now they face Al Jazira who, along with former champions Ulsan Hyundai, currently hold the only 100% record remaining in this year’s AFC Champions League after two consecutive victories, and Ghalenoei wants his players to raise their game for the must-win encounter.

“We have four matches ahead of us and every one of these games is like a final match for us. I’ve told my boys that they must make amends for the last two games,” said coach Ghalenoei.

“Al Jazira have displayed two very good matches so far in the competition. They have also been playing really well in the Emirates local league.

“I confess we haven’t got any good results so far, but I don’t blame any players for our results so far. It’s been only my fault and I take full responsibility for these two defeats.”

Esteghlal’s chances of getting off the mark will be boosted should defender Khosro Haydari and midfielder Hashem Beikzadeh recover from late fitness tests.

Walter Zenga’s Al Jazira side, by contrast, have made the perfect start to their AFC Champions League campaign after they followed up their 3-2 Matchday One victory over Qatar’s Al Rayyan with a historic 3-1 victory in Saudi Arabia over Al Shabab.

And after Esteghlal lost 1-0 in Qatar, Al Jazira find themselves three points clear at the top of the table and on course to follow up their sole Round of 16 appearance in 2012.

However, their Italian coach is insistent that his side will not become victims of their success and remain focused on taking the competition one game at a time.

“We have one rule inside our locker room: ‘Don’t think about the past, don’t think about the future,’ so we don’t really care that we have won two games so far or that Esteghlal have been beaten twice. Today and this match is the most important day and most important match, so we’re merely focused on Tuesday’s encounter,” said coach Zenga.

“This game is very important for both teams. It’s the third game for us and what is important is that we have been playing against teams with different playing style and Esteghlal is the third who also have a different playing style.

“We expect them to play very aggressively, because they want to score the first goal, so we want to do the same and try to score as quickly as possible to cancel out the Iranian side’s efforts.”