Pirouzi overcome striking problems but still bow out

AFC - Iranian champions Pirouzi maintained their interest in the AFC Champions League until the final match of Group D, defeating Nisa 4-1 to give themselves a theoretical chance of reaching the last four.

That possibility – a 1-0 victory for Al Talaba over Pakhtakor – did not become a reality as the Iraqis fell 3-0 to the hosts, but by scoring four goals the Iranians did all they could in their last game, and overcame a glaring lack of a natural goalscorer in their attack.

It was not until substitute Amir Hossein Aslanian scored in the last minute of Pirouzi's final match that a striker found the back of the net, and that's ignoring the debate about whether Aslanian is really a forward – Schmidt describing the lightning-fast 24-year-old as 'coming from track and field'.

Pirouzi's other goals against Nisa came from midfielder/defender Hassan Khanmohammadi and centre-back Yahya Golmohammadi, who got the Tehran clubs only other goal of the tournament.

"Our problem is in attack," Schmidt admitted. "But we have to play with the players we have. We can only make changes maybe in the summertime. We have to play with the players we have."

The 55-year-old German was, however, happy with the way his much-changed side went about the task of scoring the goals they needed.

"Nisa played their best game of the week, but we showed good fighting spirit in attack," he said. "It was the first time played this system and I congratulate my players because they understood everything in just five minutes. We did our work well. All we could do is relax and watch the second game and hope that the best team went through."

The affable German briefly showed some displeasure when asked whether he should have used any of the five players he used for the first time in the tournament in the game against Nisa.

"It's a crazy question," he said, insisting that the omission of players such as Mohammadali Peirovani and Hamidreza Estili was not a reflection on their previous performances. "I have old players and young players. I have tired players and fresh players. I had to use my fresh players. Nobody can play three games in five days."

Meanwhile Nisa finished the four-team competition with no points to show for their efforts and 10 goals conceded, and yet their assistant coach Saeed Seidov revealed they had thought they had a good chance of victory against Pirouzi.

"We were surprised with the result," he announced. "We had hoped to win and we had many chances, but we missed them. We must understand that in such tournaments we need better movement and team play. At this level you need more than just feeling and desire. You must have good team work and good support play."