TEHRAN The rep of Iran in the 20th Asian Soccer Clubs Championships, Piroozi sporting red jerseys fielded its squad in Azadi Stadium's pitch last Thursday Sept. 7, 2000 to thrash the Qatari team 5-1.
Beating the Qatari team Alwakra 4-2 in the first-leg match, the popular team of Iran supported by 65,000 football-crazy fans did everything at home it wanted.
The reds' Head Coach Ali Parvin preferring to keep the first-leg Man of the Match playmaking midfielder Ali Karimi on the bench in the first time, put the attack on his side's tactical plan from the very beginning of the game.
Eleven minutes into the first half, the striker of Piroozi Payan Ra'fat headed a superb cross from midfielder Hamidreza Estili past the 'keeper of Alwakra to promise a carnival of goals to the spectators.
Two minutes later, the ball kissed the net when Hamed Kavianpour passed a perfect chip to the left winger Alireza Emamifar who sidefooted the ball few inches from the hands of Alwakra goalie Hassan to double the scores.
Scorer of the historic goal in '98 World Cup against the U.S., Estili, was one of the best players who fed the forwarders very well.
In a rare attack in the 20th minute, Alkwari, who made a one-two with his teammate was floored by defender Behrouz Rahbarifard just behind the box but the Iraqi ref showed the spot.
Alkwari himself converted the penalty and minimized the gap.
But the run of the match did not change and the Iranian side possessed both the field and ball until Rahbarifard compensated for his fault.
He fired a 30-meter shoot, finding the net of Alwakra.
The red-clad goal-thirsty footballers targeted the Qatari goal many times in the remaining time but no goal passed the goalmouth and the teams went to the locker rooms.
In the second half too, the busiest man was the Alwakra's goalkeeper.
The substitute Karimi stole the imperfect header of Qatari back to Hassan and tapped it to the bottom of the net in the 28th minute.
The goalie of Qatari team took the ball out of the net just one minute later when the reds crossed two consecutive balls and hit the post and then another cross by Emamifar on the far post for another sub Behnam Seraj to head it far from the diving Hassan's hands, touching the net.
Dribbling four players of Alwakra, Karimi prepared Seraj once again a man-to-man struggle and scoring situation but he couldn't make it and the 'keeper hugged his low volley.
Four minutes into the injury time, the ref's final whistle was blown and Piroozi won the two-legged match 9-3 on aggregate to book a berth in the next round.