TEHRAN - Nassaji Mazandaran have encountered difficult times in domestic and continental competitions under head coach Mahdi Rahmati.

Nassaji suffered their second consecutive loss in the ACL group stage, falling 2-1 to Navbahor Namanganar from Uzbekistan on Tuesday.

Since their 2-0 win against Mumbai City in the ACL, Nassaji have lost their last four matches in domestic and continental competitions.

Al-Hilal, Malvan, Aluminum, and Navbahor have all defeated Nassaji, resulting in intense criticism of Rahmati. The criticisms directed at Rahmati for his side’s home defeat against Aluminum in Ghaemshahr, where even more severe.

The impressive performance of Iran's representative against Uzbekistan's Navbahor should not be overlooked. If luck had been on their side, Rahmati's team might have obtained a different result, considering they were one goal ahead until the 74th minute of the game. Saber Hardani's straight red card in the 52nd minute reduced Nassaji to 10 men.

Rahmati was displeased with the decisions made by Qatari referee Salman Ahmad Falahi and his assistants. 

“My players were fantastic and I'm grateful for their performance,” he expressed in post-match news conference.

"We had a strong start in the second half, but an error by the assistant referee and a delayed offside call resulted in my team paying with 10 men just because of the referees’ mistakes.

It remains to be seen how Rahmati will handle this challenging situation.