Tabriz – A victory for Tractor Sazi and a scoreless draw for Persepolis mean the Red Wolves of Tabriz are now top of the table and lead Persepolis on goal difference.
The first half was scoreless but Saba Qom keeper Hamed Lak was called into action as he made an impressive save to deny a header from Farzad Hatami with ten minutes remaining in the first half.
Lak made over fifty appearances for Tractor Sazi between 2013 and 2015.
It took a little luck for Tractor to finally to get one past Lak eight minutes into the second half.
Traffic in the Saba Qom penalty area led to a ball being headed towards the top of the box where Mohammad Ebrahimi half-volleyed a shot that took a deflection to get past Lak and give Tractor a 1-0 lead.
In the 65th minute, Tractor Sazi were awarded a penalty kick when Brazilian forward Edinho was fouled in the penalty area on a scoring opportunity.
Captain Mohammad Iranpourian extended Tractor’s lead to 2-0 as keeper Hamed Lak guessed wrong.
Fifteen minutes later a nice move started by Ahmad Hasanzadeh to Karim Eslami led to a cross right back to Hasanzadeh that was headed past keeper Mohammadreza Akhbari to cut the lead to 2-1.
Saba Qom gained some momentum with the goal from Hasanzadeh but were unable to find the equalizer as Tractor Sazi earned a huge 2-1 win.
One day earlier Persepolis were held to a scoreless draw away from home against Paykan.
Both Tractor and Persepolis have identical records with six wins and five draws but Tractor hold the edge on goal difference.
Tractor will look to build on their lead at top of the table when they host Padideh on 1 December while Persepolis will host Machine Sazi.