Timur Kapadze scored the only goal of the game in the first half, but according to Kazemi, Sepahan were fortunate to concede just the one goal.

"We made tactical errors and we were lucky not to concede four goals," he said.

"We were terrible today. We couldn’t even hold on to the ball for five minutes.”

Kazemi was shocked by his team’s the performance given Sepahan were within 15 minutes of beating Bunyodkor in Tashkent two weeks ago.

"A team can’t just do a 180-degree turn and play so badly after its last performance but this was us,” he said.

"We didn’t even have a proper chance in the whole game…just a possible penalty shout which the referee turned down anyway.

"The players couldn’t carry out our instructions, although the tactics we’d chosen didn’t suit the players. I was second best tactically.”

But not all of Kazemi’s wrath was directed at himself and his players, with the coach expressing his disappointment at the home fans for calling for his head during the match.

"In Uzbekistan, when they (Bunyodkor) went behind, their fans got behind them causing us to defend deeper and deeper till they scored but today, unfortunately from the 30th minute the atmosphere inside the stadium got worse and worse and the fans didn’t support us," he said.

The defeat leaves Sepahan three points behind the Uzbeks in Group D and looking like suffering a second successive elimination at the group stage.

"We have to win both (remaining) matches against Ettifaq and Al Shabab to go through," said a despondent Kazemi.

His counterpart, Khikmat Irgashev, was in altogether higher spirits.

"This began as a difficult match for both teams but we changed our tactics early on and managed to score," he said.

"We made good decisions at crucial times which is what I think made the difference. After this win we’re very hopeful of qualifying for the next round."