Al-Zawraa's significant 3-0 victory over Al-Karkh did not come from nowhere; it was the result of three main factors that made the difference for the "Nawras" on their home ground in the 29th round of the Iraqi Stars League. The team's second consecutive victory under the leadership of Luay Salah confirmed that Al-Zawraa has regained a large part of its identity.

The first reason for the victory was patience and not rushing against Al-Karkh's tight defensive organization in the first half. Al-Zawraa entered the match knowing that their opponent would close spaces and rely on counterattacks, so the players did not push forward randomly and did not leave spaces behind them.

Luay Salah dealt realistically with a first half that ended goalless, making slight adjustments between the halves to the movements of the wings and the advanced midfielder. The result quickly appeared with Sajjad Mahdi's goal in the 61st minute. Patience with the style of play and not losing focus after missing chances in the first half was the key to breaking Al-Karkh's resilience, unlike previous matches where Al-Zawraa would lose their composure when scoring was delayed.

The second decisive factor was Al-Zawraa's bench and its impact in the final third of the match. The entry of some names provided the team with additional solutions in depth and on the flanks, and they were able to exploit Al-Karkh's physical decline to score the second goal in the 92nd minute and kill the match.

The third goal scored by Murad Mohammed in the 98th minute came to confirm the same idea: Al-Zawraa currently has elements capable of making a difference from the bench. This depth was missing in earlier periods of the season, and having players with the quality of Abdulkarim and Murad gave Luay Salah comfort in managing the final minutes, turning a potential draw after Tomiwa's missed penalty into a big 3-0 win.

The third and perhaps most important reason is the mental maturity shown by Al-Zawraa's players in two moments that could have turned the match around. The first was when Al-Karkh thought they had equalized in the 67th minute through Younis Hamoud, and the second when Ibrahim Tomiwa missed a penalty in the 74th minute.

In previous matches, Al-Zawraa would quickly be affected by such moments and lose focus. But today, the team held together mentally, not allowing Al-Karkh's disallowed goal to give the opponent a morale boost, and not letting the missed penalty turn into frustration. The goalkeeper and defenders handled it steadily, and the midfield quickly regained control, leading to a decisive two goals in the dying moments.