Sepahan needed a win coupled with its direct rival Al-Taawoun dropping points to move into second place, but while the Saudi side did lose to Pakhtakor later in the night, Navidkia’s men were unable to complete the task at hand, falling to a comprehensive defeat at King Abdullah Sports City Stadium.

“Frankly, I cannot believe what happened, especially the first half, in which we conceded three goals, which made our task more difficult in the second half,” said Navidkia.

“We tried to put pressure on the opponent during the second half and we had a lot of opportunities, but we did not take advantage of them, unlike the opposing team who took advantage of their chances in the best way, and I think that the mental factor was decisive, which the opponent excelled in as well.

“We apologize to the Sepahan fans, who were waiting for us to qualify for the next round, but we did not succeed in achieving that due to some mistakes that cost us winning more than one match, in addition to fixture congestion also negatively affecting the performance of the players,” he added.