Good after 5 minutes

No Red??

Kovalenko missed a big foul in the 5th minute of the match when the player from Al-Ettifaq went studs up on the opponents thigh. Connecting with studs is a red, but when a player gets hit in the thigh with the studs, that's an OBVIOUS red. Kovalenko and his assistant didn't see the incident at all, because they didn't even call a foul. Oh well...

Good cards

Kovalenko showed 3 cautions in this match, and all 3 were deserved, but I would like to see him talk to players more often by giving them warnings instead of going straight to cards.

Assisstants

Kovalenko's assistants called some tough offsides against the home side, in front of 63,000 spectators which proved they can work well under pressure, because they were all correct.

The Match

The reason I woke up at 6:50 on a Saturday morning to watch this match was because the football between Arabs vs Persians are always interesting to watch. Esteghlal obviously deserved the win and now they are in the Group Stage of the AFC Champions League.