Game will be held in Dushanbe with fans allowed, according to Tajikistan medias, game will be almost full of fans.

Istiklol surprised me a lot this season in AFC CL I really expected them to loose heavily but they made amazing results especially against Al Hilal even if the saudian team was pretty bad it was still a huge performance.

Istikol has the advantage that their league resumed since weeks so physically they will not have any problem.

Istikol hasn't amazin key players but they still have good players as Alisher Dzhalilov, Manuchekhr Dzhalilov. But the power of this team is more about the chemistry and how they are playing together. Most of their players are part of the national team.

On their side Persepolis had a break of season and team didn't play any official game since end of july.

Persepolis lost key players in all three lines : Hossein Kananizadegan in defense, Ahmad Nourollahi in midfield and Shahryar Moghanlou in front.

They made some additions to replace them like the striker from Arak Aliminium Hamed Pakdel & Asadi from Austria but they will still not be used to play together and I don't see them as good as the players who left.

Persepolis as most of iranian team is always playing a defensive style so for me it's really difficult to see a game with a lot of goals and to see the iranians to win by more than 2 goals.

On neutral venue I wouldn't have pick Istiklol but here they are making the history for the country, only to host this game it's a big event for the country but if they qualify it would be a dream for Tajikistan's population.

I expect Persepolis to win by maximum 1 goal but I wouldn't be surprised to see Istiklok make a positive result.