Defending champions Lekhwiya survived a massive scare before scraping past minnows Kharatiyat in the Qatar Stars League last night.

Having played second fiddle for most part of the match during which Kharatiyat came close to scoring on several occasions, Lekhwiya were rescued by 90th minute strike from South Korean Nam Tae-hee which put them within a point of leaders Al Sadd.

Nam shot past Kharatiyat goalkeeper Khalifa Ndiaye from just inside the penalty area after receiving a measured pass from Vladmir Weiss that left the defence wrong-footed.

It was one of those days when Lekhwiya virtually had an off day with their players failing miserably to piece together a decent move to trouble the Kharatiyat defence.

Sebastian Soria was nowhere in the picture and Chico Flores and Nam too struggled as Kharatiyat dominated proceedings, threatening to score only their second win in seven matches.

Especially in the second half, Lekhwiya survived a series of close calls. Goalkeeper Amine Lecomte brought off a splendid diving save to thwart a fine free-kick taken by Kharatiyat captain Nabeel Anwar and Hasan Abdel-Fatteh missed a sitter from close, failing to tap the ball in off the resultant corner.

Abdul-Fatteh missed another chance, in the 73rd minute, when he blasted wide with just the goalkeeper to beat from 15 yards.

Immediately afterwards, Lecomte produced another good save to stop a powerful shot from Khalid Nouruddin.

The Lekhwiya defence was hard pressed to contain the wave of attacks launched by their rivals and almost fell in the 86th minute when Issiar Dia’s shot from 10 yards off a pass from Abdulaziz Ansari took a deflection of Lecomte and went out.

Al Kharatiyat coach Bertrand Marchand was upset, saying his team didn’t deserve to lose after dominating Lekhwiya.

“We should have nailed the match comfortably but Lecomte was superb in the goal,” said Marchand.

“We dominated the second session and missed several chances, and when you do that, especially against a side like Lekhwiya who are the champions, then it becomes a problem,” added the Frenchman.

Al Kharatiyat are languishing in 10th place in the standings with just six points, having scored only one win in seven games.

“We could have improved our position had we scored a win but unfortunately couldn’t,” he said.

Lekhwiya now have 18 points from seven matches, while Al Sadd have 19 from as many.

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