TEHRAN - Al Taawoun football club reserved their area in the semi-finals of the AFC Champions League Two 2024/25 after a 4-2 penalty shootout win against Tractor at Wolves Park on Tuesday.The tie ended 2-2 on the night and on aggregate with Saudi Arabias Al Taawoun proving sharper in the shootout.Boosted by their home crowd, Al Taawoun started the more powerful side with their consistent accumulation and ownership putting Tractor on the defensive.Tractor were granted a penalty two minutes into the 2nd half after a VAR evaluation when the ball struck the left arm of Renn Rivas.
Ricardo Alves sent keeper Atiiay the wrong way and the visitors were unexpectedly in control.Al Taawoun resisted and drew level in the 54th minute when Musa Barrow wrong-footed a defender and sent out a cracker of a shot from outside package which curled past a diving Beiranvand.Buoyed by the objective, the hosts kept the pressure on but were let down by poor finishing from Barrow and Abdelhamid Sabiri and Tractors packed defence, forcing the match into extra time.Al Taawouns Sultan Mandash, who had begun 10 minutes before the end of guideline tie, scored right at the start of extra time when he latched onto a free-kick from Aschraf El Mahdioui, went past the keeper and slammed the ball into the back of the net.The visitors equalled the score in the 105th minute through Domagoj Drozdek, who headed in from close quarters off a pass by Danial Esmaeilifar.The occurring penalty shoot-out had Tractors Mehdi Shiri ballooning his shot and colleague Sajjad Ashouri seeing his effort conserved by Atiiay.
Al Taawoun converted all their possibilities to continue their bid for the title.