TEHRAN – Esteghlal football team head coach Winfried Schaefer says the fans must show their support in the match against Al Sadd of Qatar.

The Iranian giants will entertain Xavi’s Al Sadd at the Azadi 80,000-seated Stadium on Monday in the first leg of the 2018 AFC Champions League quarterfinals.

“We are waiting for the match against Al Sadd with positive feeling. Some people thought that we would not advance to this stage in the past but we are here at the moment,” Schaefer said in the pre-match news conference.

“Al Sadd have changed quite a lot compared to the team faced Persepolis in the preliminary round. We have missed our five key players and have signed five new players and need more time to get in much better shape,” the German coach added.

“Our fans must come to the stadium and support us against Al Sadd. We have a difficult task in the second leg in Doha so we must get good result in our home match,” Schaefer stated.

“We must fight for win tomorrow. We have self-belief and confidence to defeat Al Sadd. My hope is that our fans will come to the stadium as they supported us in two matches against Al Rayyan and Al Ain,” the former Cameroon coach said.

Reporting by Masoud Hossein