MNA - The second round of IPL 2015-16 had 8 matches of more excitement on Thursday and Friday.
The first day of the second round of Iran’s Persian Gulf Pro League (IPL 2015–16) was opened at 12,000 seat Samen Stadium of Mashhad city where Padideh of the city lined up against Foulad of Khuzestan.
The hosts led after 38 minutes when Mohammad-Hossein Moradmand the new defender of Padideh seized the opportunity among the baffled players of Foulad and headed into the bottom corner. Mashhadis kept the lead till the last minute when Hossein Ebrahimi equalized at 89 and saved the visitors. Mehdi Kheiri (5) of Padideh and Hossein Ebrahimi (86) of Foulad were both booked by the referee Seyed Mehdi Seyed Ali.
The second encounter of the day was between Rah Ahan and Saipa which started half an hour later at Rah Ahan Stadium of Tehran. Milad Midavoudi at 58 and Javad Nekounam at 70 scored for Saipa to defeat the hosts and send them to the 14th place of the table. Saipa’s first victory in the season temporarily proceeds them to the top of the table, as yet 8 teams had not played their 2nd round fixtures.
Naft of Tehran and Saba of Qom shared the points in their second match of the season as both clubs started the 15th IPL last week with scoreless draws. Daei’s players started very good with their 1st minute goal but the hosts revived at 81 with the recently in Abbas Bouozar’s free kick equalizing.
The tragedy of the day occurred in Southwestern city of Ahvaz where the high temperature, humidity and dust inflected the reds of Tehran in their away match of the 2nd round. Persepolis lost 2-1 to Esteghlal of Khuzestan after they could not fire back the two goals of Hassan Beyt-Saeed. The reds received two in ten minutes at 47 and 57 and the red card received by Hadi Nowrouzi at 67 worsened the situation for them. The only goal of Persepolis was scored by Mehdi Tarami at 87 at a try from the closed angle.
The second day started in Tabriz where Tractorsazi defeated its fellow citizen 3-1 thanks to goals scored by Shoja Khalilzadeh (11, 33) and Saman Nariman-Jahan.
The most exiting encounter of the second round between Mazloumi’s Esteghlal of Tehran and Ghalenoie’s Malavan of Bandar Anzali ended 2-0 to blues of Tehran to let Ghalenoie experience the first loss of his new season in front of his former team.
Siah Jamegan of Mashhad experienced the second defeat of its season in its second fixture losing 0-1 to the blues of Ahvaz.
Sepahan edged past Zowbahan 1-0 in the Naqsh-e Jahan derby of the second round to bag its second 1-0 win and impose on Zowbahan players their second 1-0 loss.
The only goal of the match came in the 73rd minute as Ali Karimi broke the stalemate and bagged all crucial three points for Sepahan.
This season of Persian Gulf Pro League (IPL 2015–16) is the 45th season of the Iran’s Football League. Sepahan are the defending champions. The season features 14 teams from the 2014–15 Iran Pro League and two new teams promoted from the 2014–15 Azadegan League: Siah Jamegan as Group A champions and Foolad Novin as Group B champions.
Video of Iran Pro League week 2