Perspolis news agency : Abdelmalek Ziaya struck twice as Al Ittihad began their 2011 AFC Champions League assault with an 3-1 win over Perspolis at Prince Abdullah Al Faisal Stadium.

Al-Ittihad pulled away from Perspolis after a fairly even first half. Abdelmalik Ziaya opened the scoring for the Saudi side in the 20th minute before Maziar Zare equalised seven minutes later. The hosts then secured the win with a goal from Mohammed Nour in the 50th minute and another strike from Ziaya with fifteen minutes to go.

The striker opened the scoring for the two-time ACL champions in the Group C clash after 14 minutes with an exquisite finish before Maziar Zare’s deflected free-kick put the Iranians back on level terms.

However, Mohammed Noor’s penalty one minute after the interval re-established the home side’s lead and Ziaya rounded off a deserved victory with a close-range tap-in with quarter of an hour remaining.

Al-Ittihad : Mabrouk Zaid , Redha Fallatah Tukar , Hamad Al Montashari , Saleh Al Saqri , Lopes Almeida Nuno Assis , Saud Ali Khariri , Mohammed Noor(Rashed Al-Raheeb) , Ahmad Hadid , Mohammed Al-Rashed(Sultan Al Namare) , Alves Paulo Jorge , Abdelmalek Ziaya(Naif Hazazi) .

Perspolis: Rahman Ahmadi , Sepehr Heydari , Hamidreza Aliasgari , Ebrahim Shakori , Alireza Noormohammadi , Alves Tiago Fraga , Maziar Zare , Mohammad Nori , Hossein Badamaki(Amir Hossein Feshangchi) , Gholamreza Rezaei , Hadi Norouzi (Vahid Hashemian) .

{jcomments off}