Since 1971–72 Iran football season, Esteghlal Tehran and Sepahan Isfahan had several meetings in Iranian League, Hazfi Cup, and friendly matches.

The importance of this meeting for Esteghlal was that, they missed the championship of 2001–02 Iran Pro League in the last day to Persepolis and Winning the Hazfi Cup was a really high motivation for them.

On the other side Sepahan, who lost both the meetings in 2001–02 Iran Pro League to Esteghlal, was really eager to compensate those two losses.

Therefore, after these two dramatic and close matches, two clubs gain the score of 5–5 in total, and Esteghlal could advance into the final just because of higher number of scored-away goals.

In 2002-03 Iranian Football Season, two clubs met each other 5 times, and dramatically, Sepahan could won all 5 meetings with coaching of Farhad Kazemi.

In this tournament Esteghlal as the host, Sepahan and Pas Tehran as the champion and runner-up of 2002-03 Iran Pro League, and Al Wasl from Dubai as the guest team participated.

Esteghlal by coaching of Amir Ghalenoei had a great performance in 2003–04 Iran Pro League and becoming the runner-up.

On the other side, Sepahan by coaching of Farhad Kazemi did not have a successful season in 2003–04 Iran Pro League.

In the second leg in Tehran and in front of more than 85000 Esteghlal fans, it was Sepahan could perform really great and won the match with the result of 2-0.

It was a really unexpected loss for Esteghlal fans and Amir Ghalenoei, due to their great performance during the league season.

On the other side, Sepahan's fans expected from their team to win this match and go forward for the first Asian title after three-year-in-a-row Iran's football championships.