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Nam Tae-hee struck two first-half goals to give Lekhwiya a thrilling 3-2 victory over Al Sadd in the Qatar Stars League yesterday.
The South Korean pro found the target in the ninth and 27th minutes while Sebastian Soria scored a penalty in the 43rd as Lekhwiya notched their sixth victory in 12 games to go third on the table with 21 points. With yesterday’s loss, Al Sadd failed to consolidate their lead at the top and now head El Jaish by virtue of a better goal difference. Both teams have 24 points.
Al Sadd had hardly settled into some sort of rhythm when Nam struck for the first time, deftly heading the ball home off a free-kick leaving goalkeeper Saad al-Sheeb stranded.
While the first goal had an element of luck about it, Nam’s second was the result of a cool and calculated effort.
After a series of passes, Nam found himself with free space outside the penalty area and the South Korean took his time to size up the situation before essaying a cleverly-taken chip that just went over al-Sheeb and into the goal.
Al Sadd were thoroughly clueless during the first half and when Soria scored from the spot after he was brought down, the defending champions were staring at one of their most humiliating defeats in recent times.
However, they returned with renewed vigour after the break and managed to have the Lekhwiya defence under some pressure.
Soon the Lekhwiya backline cracked when Raul slipped in a measured pass for Khalfan Ibrahim and the Qatar star was left with a clear opening to score past Lekhwiya goalkeeper Amine Lecomte in the 57th minute.
Al Sadd struck again within three minutes, Khalfan blasting a penalty after Abdelkarim Hassan was brought down in the box.
In other matches yesterday, Al Ahli and Al Khor scored 1-0 wins over Al Wakrah and Al Kharatiat respectively.
