In the match held in Ahvaz’s Foolad Arena, Raphael Silva put the visiting team into the head with a header just three minutes into the match and Amirali Sadeghi made it 2-0 in the 21st minute.

Esteghlal moved up to eighth place with 14 points, eight points behind leaders Tractor.

Earlier in the day, Esteghlal’s fellow Tehrani rivals Persepolis lost to rock-bottom side Nassaji 1-0 in Tehran.

MNA/TT