Garrido Not Happy with Persepolis’ Performance
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Juan Carlos Garrido was not a happy man after his Persepolis side was not able to take maximum points from its AFC Champions League Elite 2024-25 tie against Al Gharafa, which left the Iran side sitting outside of the qualification spots at the halfway stage.
From allowing itself to be pegged back so quickly after taking the lead to missing a multitude of chances in the closing period of the match, Garrido said there’s much to do if his side is to avoid early elimination.
“It was a difficult game as both teams played openly with the motivation to win,” said Garrido. “Both teams had good players on the field and it made us see good moves on the field.
“We controlled the game well in the first half. It is very difficult to restrain (Al Gharafa forward) Joselu, but we did it well, and I believe we were doing the right thing in the first half.
“When we scored our goal, which is the most important point of the game, we should have stopped the game so that nothing happened in the next 10 minutes, but we didn't do that,” the Spaniard said.
“We lost the ball in front of our own goal and Al Gharafa scored. We should have calmed down the game. We had many opportunities in the final minutes but we could not score the second goal. I think we were better in those minutes.”
Farshad Faraji put Persepolis ahead in the 53rd minute but Al Gharafa drew level just three minutes later, with Ahmed Al Ganehi making an immediate impact after coming off the bench.
Ali Alipour, Lucas Joao and Isa Alkasir all spurned opportunities late on as Persepolis remained winless after four matches.
Garrido will be hoping for better fortunes when Persepolis face Qatar’s Al Rayyan SC on November 25.