Tractor power past Wakrah after three first-half goals

Three first half goals saw Tractor SC of Iran cruise to a 3-0 win over Qatar’s Al Wakrah on Wednesday in the teams’ Group A opener in the AFC Champions League Two at Al Janoub Stadium.Tomislav Strkalj and Mehdi Torabi struck in the 13th and 16th minutes respectively to put Dragan Skocic’s side in control of the tie and Amirhossein Hosseinzadeh hit the third seven minutes before the interval to put the result beyond doubt. The win gives Tractor top spot in the early Group A standings after Mohun Bagan and FC Ravshan shared a 0-0 draw in Mumbai.Home side Al Wakrah had several early glimpses of goal, with Hamdi Fathy finding the space 30 yards from the target to set his sights only to fire high over the bar. Omar al-Osad, meanwhile, sent his effort into the arms of Alireza Beiranvand.Failing to make more of those half-chances was punished by the more ruthless Iranians, who struck twice in three minutes to take a firm hold of the game.Abdelkareem Hassan’s dithering in defence was pounced on by Strkalj in the 13th minute, the Croatian forward racing into the penalty area to slip his first-time shot past Mohammed al-Bakri and give Tractor the lead.Three minutes later Skocic’s side hit a second, Mohammad Naderi heading Shota Khalilzadeh’s searching ball from deep into the path of Torabi and the striker steadied himself expertly to bend a right-foot shot around al-Bakri.Another defensive error gifted the Iranians their third seven minutes before the interval when Nabil Erfan, in an attempt to play the ball back to Alex Scholz, sent Naderi’s cut-back onto the toe of Hosseinzadeh, and he gleefully accepted the invitation to score.Al Wakrah sought a way back into the game in the second 45 minutes, with Beiranvand required to make several saves to keep Tractor’s three-goal lead intact.The IR Iran international goalkeeper did well to push Farid Boulaya’s free-kick to safety in the 62nd minute while Beiranvand used his feet to clear an attempt from Ricardo Gomez that looked destined for the net.At the other end al-Bakri pushed away Strkalj’s attempt to score his second of the night before Iranians ran out the clock to take all three points.