Tractor Sazi football team needs to overturn a 4-1 first leg loss against Al Nasr of the United Arab Emirates when the teams meet on Tuesday.
The Iranians will need to score three times without conceding to go through to the quarter-final but, with no team having ever overturned a three-goal deficit in the knockout stage of the competition since it was launched in 2002, the odds are stacked heavily against Ghalenoei’s side.
“We have to apologize for the goals we conceded in the first leg,” said Ghalenoei, who led Iran at the finals of the 2007 AFC Asian Cup. “There were four attacks and we conceded four goals.”
“I have two points to make about the game. First, we should focus on not conceding goals. I’m sure if we don’t concede goals we will progress. I hope we will have a good game.
“I hope more than 80-90 thousand fans come to the stadium and with the help of God we make them happy by progressing. Hopefully, we will dictate our game in the early stages and will go on to score many goals,” Ghalenoei added.