Al Wahda bowed out of the Asian Champions League after a hat-trick fromPersepolis’ Mehdi Taremi floored them 4-2 in their final group game on Monday night at Azadi Stadium in Tehran.
With the victory, the Iranian side progressed to the last-16 stage behind Saudi Arabia powerhouse Al Hilal, who overcame Al Rayyan of Qatar in a high-scoring 4-3 thriller at Jassim bin Hamad Stadium in Doha.
Persepolis struck twice in the space of three minutes when Soroush Rafiei capitalised on an early mistake and picked up a poor clearance from Wahda goalkeeper Rashed Ali to open the scoring on 17 minutes.
Mohammed Abdulbasit sent the ball towards Rashed Ali but the Wahda keeper completely missed on clearing it from inside the area.
Rafiei was quick to pounce on the ball and roll it towards an empty goal.
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Taremi doubled the lead three minutes later as Wahda were still recovering from the mishap.
Vahid Amiri took play inside the area before slipping it towards Taremi, who scored into the bottom-left corner with his right foot.
The visitors suffered a big blow when Jorge Valdivia, the Chile international playmaker, left the pitch past the half-hour mark, apparently with a thigh injury.
Mohammed Al Akberi gotWahda back in the game with a spectacular curling shot from 35 yards that had the Persepolis keeper Alireza Beiranvand helplessly watching as the ball crashed into the far corner of the net.
With the score 2-1 at half time, Al Wahda were still in the game and needing Hilal to win in the other match.
The Abu Dhabi team were level six minutes after the break when Sebastian Tagliabue headed in a Balazs Dzsudzsak cross.
But the home side regained the lead three minutes later when Taremi beat the offside trap.
The Persepolis forward completed the hat-trick with an identical effort on his first right-
footed shot towards the bottom-left corner off a cross from Ali Alipour to take the game to safety.
Wahda finish at the bottom of Group D on four points but they put up a good performance, despite a solitary win and a draw from six games.
They now return for their final domestic league game with Al Shabab on Saturday and a meeting with Al Nasr in the President’s Cup final on May 17.
apassela@thenational.ae
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