Choi Yong-Soo

PLDC - Seoul, FC Seoul's coach has said that Esteghlal is a good team and that playing against them will be hard.


On September 18th, Dejan Damjanovic, FC Seoul's Montenegrin striker scored in the 90th minute of the match against Al Ahli of Saudi Arabia, and won the second-leg of the ACL quarter-finals match for his club. However, the first-leg in Saudi Arabia had ended 1-1, so FC Seoul would have made it to the semi-finals with a 0-0 draw.

On the same day, Esteghlal defeated Buriram United 2-1 in Thailand, with a late goal from Andranik Teymourian (90+2'), that booked their spot in the next round. Again however, Esteghlal would have made it to the next round with a 1-1 draw, because the Iranian team had won the first-leg in Azadi Stadium in Tehran.

Now that these two Asian powerhouses must meet eachother, FC Seoul's coach, Choi Yong-Soo has said, "We will do everything we can to keep moving forward and make history."

He continued, "I am very happy because we were able to defeat a powerful Middle Eastern team (Al Ahli) in front of our fans. Our players followed my instructions well, and we were able to gain the preferred results with pressing."

Regarding facing the very powerful Esteghlal, Soo said, "We know that we are going to have a hard time against Esteghlal. They are a very good team. But we are also an excellent team with several great international players. We have to keep our spirits high so that everything goes well."

Esteghlal vs FC Seoul's first-leg will be played on September 25th at 7:30 PM local time in Seoul World Cup Stadium, and the second-leg will be played on October 2nd at 7:00 PM local time in Azadi Stadium.

By: Arman Tamjidi
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