IRNA, Tehran
Budding striker Mehrzad Ma’danchi hit two to help Persepolis beat the Navy’s Malavan 3-1 in the League Cup quarterfinal in Azadi Stadium, west of the capital, Saturday.

The northerners should have opened the scoring two minutes after the kickoff through striker Mohammad Gholami, whose drilling header was diverted to corner by Persepolis keeper Mohammad Mohammadi.

Persepolis also lost a couple of scoring chances, but out-of-sort forward Javad Kazemian missed the best opportunity on 25 minutes when he hit the ball against Malavan goalie Massoud Gholamalizad’s face with the goal begging.

Ma’danchi stole a loose ball four minutes later, forcing a dive from Gholamalizad, whose fingertips denied the Reds the opener, reported the English-language daily Tehran Times in its Sunday’s edition.

The striker recently summoned to national training camp rattled the crossbar in the 38th minute and seconds later his teammate Mohammad-Reza Mamani lost his balance in the area, but the referee Iraj Nazari ruled out a penalty award.

Some 35,000 fans, however, celebrated the opener one minute from the interval as midfielder Pejman Nouri’s inswinging drive from behind the box found the back of the net.

It was not the day of Kazemian as the striker failed to clear the advancing Gholamalizad in a one-on-one confrontation four minutes into the second half.

Persepolis made it 2-0 on 70 minutes following a solo effort from the Czech signing Robert Saha. The left winger carried the ball some 35 yards before leaving Ma’danchi alone with the keeper to beat with a side-footed kick.

Malavan midfielder Maziar Zare’ stopped the fans’ party one minute later, sending a long free-kick in an unguarded net.

But Ma’danchi wrapped up the victory four minutes from time with a classy drive from an acute angle, ricocheting in off the far post.