Al Rayyan captain Rodrigo Tabata scored an own goal in the 7th minute at the Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium in Doha.
Abderrazak Hamdallah equalized the match in the 18th minute and Tabata was on target 10 minutes later.
With nine minutes remaining, Al Rayyan went down to 10-man after Tabata was shown his second yellow card.
Esteghlal striker Ali Ghorbani found the back of the net with a header in the 88th minute.