TEHRAN – Holder Sepahan beat home team Saba Battery 1-0 in the first-leg final of Iran’s League Cup in Shahid Derakhshan Stadium in Robat Karim off Tehran Sunday.

The Isfahan-based Sepahan scored the sole goal of the match from the penalty spot through Hadi Aqili in the 59th minute.

Morteza Assadi, who conceded the penalty kick, was sent off by the referee Rahim Rahimi-Moqaddam.

The 10-man Saba failed to level the game, having a hard task to break the Sepahan nut in the second leg in the central city of Isfahan on June 15.