Al Duhail lost 0-1 to Iran’s Persepolis in Round 2, Group E of the AFC Champions League at the Abdullah bin Khalifa Stadium in Doha on Monday.

Omid Alishah scored the only goal in the 63rd minute for the Iranian side as Al Duhail continued their search for their first win of the season on the continent.

Going into the match, Al Duhail, who made it to the AFC Champions League semifinals for the first time last season, had to settle for a share of the spoils with Tajikistan’s FC Istiklol, while Persepolis were beaten by Saudi Arabia’s Al Ittihad.

Persepolis had the first series of chances with a Shahab Zahedi 13th-minute header from a difficult angle on the left that ended just wide to the left following an assist by Saeid Sadeghi.

Six minutes later, Al Duhail’s Michael Olunga called goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand into action with a left-footed shot from the left side of the box after collecting a well-measured pass from Almoez Ali, but the Iranian international’s sharp reflexes prevented what could have been the opening goal for the home side.

Shahab Zahedi could have probably opened the scoring for Persepolis in the 22nd minute after getting on the end of Danial Esmaeilifar’s through ball, but he was flagged by the linesman for offside.

The Iranian side came out firing on all cylinders in the second half and it took them just two minutes on resumption to put goalkeeper Salah Zakaria to the test as Omid Alishah tried a right-footed shot from the left side of the box, which the Qatari shotstopper got the better of.

Zakaria made another fine save in the 51st minute, stopping Omid Alishah’s right-footed shot after Zahedi had put him through from the left side of the box in the center of the goal.

Persepolis broke the deadlock in the 63rd minute through Alishah, whose right-footed shot from long range on the left, following a Masoud Rigi pass, went beyond the reach of the stretching goalkeeper.

The goal did little to reduce the Iranian side’s hunger for goals as they continued to mount pressure on their hosts, and Alishah almost doubled his side’s lead in the 75th minute, but his header from the centre of the box following a corner kick went narrowly wide.