TEHRAN - Iran's Tractor and Saudi Arabia's Al Taawoun football teams played out an entertaining 0-0 draw in their AFC Champions League Two 2024/25 quarter-final first leg tie at the Yadegar-E-Imam Stadium on Tuesday.

Al Taawoun keeper Abdulquddus Atiiay had to be at his best, making saves from Tractor’s Tomislav Strkalj, Ricardo Alves and Amirhossein Hosseinzadeh to keep his team in the game going into the second leg.

Both sides had looks at goal within the first five minutes, with Al Taawoun’s Fayçal Fajr’s shot from outside the box and Tractor’s Tomislav Strkalj’s header from the centre missing the target. 

Al Taawoun’s Abdelhamid Sabiri then tried with a stiff grounder from outside the box in the seventh minute that forced Tractor custodian Alireza Beiranvand into a full stretch save.

The hosts kept pressing, with keeper Atiiay standing his ground to block consecutive shots from Strkalj in the centre of the box and then Alves from the left in the 20th minute.

Mehdi Torabi then set up Hosseinzadeh in the 23rd minute, who saw his stinger from the centre saved, the-afc.com reported.  

Strkalj waltzed between two defenders in the 35th minute to latch on to a cross from Mohammad Naderi but his header from inside the box again found Atiiay in the way.

Tractor came close again after the break when Hosseinzadeh evaded his marker and with the keeper stranded, saw his shot rattle off the crossbar.

They missed another chance in the 76th minute when Hosseinzadeh made a run down the right, only to see his shot across the face of the goal go to waste.

Tractor’s Domagoj Drozdek then saw his close-range header from the centre of the box off a pass from Danial Esmaeilifar just go wide in the 88th minute, ensuring next week’s return leg will be a blockbuster affair.