By Sports Reporter/Doha


Lekhwiya lost a bit of ground —and along with it some of their momentum — after suffering a 2-0 defeat at the hands of El Jaish in the Qatar Stars League yesterday.
The loss saw the defending champions drop down a point to second position behind Al Sadd after the Wolves thrashed Umm Salal 4-1 earlier in the day.
With nine matches to be played by each team, it’s more or less certain that the title will be won by either Lekhwiya or Al Sadd, with the remaining teams fighting to stay in the top four in order to compete in the Cup competitions.
El Jaish, on 31 points, lag Al Sadd by nine and are in third place, followed by Qatar Sports Club on 30.
Lekhwiya needed a win to consolidate their position at the top, but were engaged in a battle of attrition by El Jaish. For most of the game, the game failed to pick any notable momentum, with too many little skirmishes between the players slowing down its pace.
Thankfully, El Jaish came up with two goals in 11 minutes to rescue the situation and open up the door for Al Sadd to go ahead.
In the 55th minute Mohamed Methnani was left unchecked on the left flank and the forward’s routine pass into the penalty area saw Romarinho pounce on the ball and score from point blank range past goalkeeper Amine Lecomte.
While El Jaish’s joy knew no bounds, Lekhwiya didn’t seem to learn from their mistake, Yasir Abu Baker punishing them for another defensive lapse in the 66th minute.
Mohamed Moosa was too casual with the ball and Baker snatched it from his feet before making a 40-metre dash to easily score past the goalkeeper.
Lekhwiya came close to scoring only once, a powerful shot from 25 yards by Youssef Msakni missing the net by a whisker in the dying seconds of the game.

SADD THUMP SALAL 4-1
Earlier in the day Al Sadd produced a strong performance to beat Umm Salal 4-1. Salal were reduced to 10-men as early as in the 13th minute and they never recovered from that. For Sadd, Khalfan Ibrahim scored a brace (14’, 33’) and the other two goals were scored by Hassan al-Haydos (48’) and Nadir Belhadj (69’).
Salal got a consolation goal through Tuncay Sanli in the 89th minute.
With this win Sadd are now back at the top of the standings and now have a one point lead over arch-rivals Lekhwiya.
In the other match of the day, Al Ahli got back to winning ways in the Qatar Stars League with a 3-0 defeat of Al Gharafa yesterday.
Ahli striker Alain Dioko scored the opener in the 10th minute and then Mulota Kabangu doubled their advantage in the 36th minute. Skipper Meshal Abdullah completed the rout with a strike in the 51st minute.


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