Skipper Rodrigo Tabata spared Al Rayyan’s blushes as the defending champions survived a scare from a resurgent Muaither before clinching a 1-0 win in the Qatar Stars League yesterday.
Coach Michael Laudrup was under no illusions that Muaither would be pushovers, and that proved the case as the minnows looked like scoring any moment before Tabata’s 77th minute strike gave Al Rayyan their third win in eight matches.
Phillipe Birol’s Muaither started brightly and had the lion’s share of possession in the first ten minutes, but despite dominating possession, failed to create any clear cut chances. The first real chance of the game fell to Al Rayyan’s talismanic attacking midfielder and captain, Rodrigo Tabata, whose shot from 12 yards out after 11 minutes of play narrowly glided over the crossbar thanks to a desperate block from The Stallions’ Hamad Mansour.
Muaither’s best first half chance fell to Ayoub Ouadrassi, who found himself on the end of a lovely chipped ball that made its way over Al Rayyan’s back four. Despite being just six yards from goal, his header didn’t test Al Rayyan goalkeeper as it sailed wide over the cross bar.
Al Rayyan settled into a rhythm in the latter half of the first 45 minutes of play and began dominating the middle of the park. The Lions, however, were unable to create any clear-cut chances and despite heading into half time boasting 65% of possession and 11 corner kicks, they didn’t manage to test Muaither’s goalkeeper Basel Zaidan.
The second half started much like the first half ended, with Al Rayyan dominating possession but neither team creating any clear chances. The first real chance of the second half came on the 63rd minute when Muaither’s Jordanian international, Mahmoud Za’tara, found himself on the end of a perfectly weighted through ball and one-on-one with the Lions’ goalkeeper.
Despite striking a fierce shot on target, it was straight at Al Rayyan’s goalkeeper Oumar Barry and was deflected out for a corner.
Al Rayyan went straight up the other end of the pitch and their ex Barcelona star, Sergio Garcia, nearly scored with his head. That chance opened up a decent attacking spell for Al Rayyan which saw Garcia, Sebastian Soria and Tabata all test Zaidan, forcing some fine saves. Al Rayyan’s sustained pressure eventually paid off and on the 77th minute when Tabata scored from three yards out after some scrappy defending to make it 1-0 and take home all three points.
 Meanwhile, title contenders El Jaish scored a 1-0 win over Al Kharaitiyat. In a scrappy encounter, Al Kharaitiyat, under the guidance of their new coach Ahmed al-Ajlani, could not find the net despite providing a resilient performance against a very tough opposition.
 After a tactical battle for most of the first half, El Jaish scored the only goal of the game in the 38th minute with Rashidov netting his fourth of the season thanks to an assist by Aboubaker Essa, who made an incisive pass to the unmarked striker.
The Uzbek international finished with a left-footed curler after he was one-on-one with the goalkeeper, Ahmed Sufyan. Kharaitiyat had a chance to level the score line however in the 41st minute but Abdelhadi Ameen’s shot came off the woodwork. In an uneventful second half, the Soldiers controlled most of the ball and had more chances but could not convert them. The closest they came to scoring in the second half was when Romarinho’s free-kick was saved by the keeper at the near post.