Foolad opened their campaign with an 8-1 win over AUB Altyn Tash Bishkek of Kyrgyzstan with Iranian legend Vahid Shamsaee delighting the vocal home crowd with four goals.

Their performance suggested they are serious contenders for the trophy but Afzali (pictured) has called on his side to cut out complacency or risk being punished as a result.

"After our fourth goal (against AUB) the players lost their incentive and slowed down, but 4-1 is not a safe result,” he said.

“Sometimes this happens in futsal. We underestimated our opponents at the start and we need to work on this in future games.”

Stroitel Zarafshan lost their opening game to Nagoya Oceans but Afzali does not believe that defeat makes them the weakest side in Group A.

“We have analysed their playing style,” he added.

“They are physically very strong and though they lost their first match it does not mean they are not a strong side.

“We hope we can improve our performances game by game and perform even better against them.”

Key to Foolad’s victory over AUB was the support of the local fans, who clearly rattled the opponents and Afzali is keen for Iranians to once again act as the 11th man against Stroitel.

“They really made a important impact in our victory, they egged us on throughout the game and we really appreciate that,” he said.

Stroitel have had the luxury of an extra day’s rest and coach Anvar Mamedov is hopeful that will pay dividends against Foolad.

“We had a long flight to get to Esfahan before the start of the tournament and it was a difficult match against Nagoya so we needed to recover,” he said.

“In my opinion from just one game we cannot show anything and it does not mean we can form an opinion about this team.

“We need more matches before we can show how we really play.”