Two deflected goals give Lekhwiya the victory in what will be a tough result to take for Jaish coach Sabri Lamouchi

Lekhwiya cut down El Jaish’s lead at the top of the QSL table with a narrow 2-1 win over their rivals in a top-of-the-table game yesterday. The first half saw few chances exchanged, but opened up in the second half. Two deflected goals gave Lekhwiya the win, in what will be a tough result to take for Jaish coach Sabri Lamouchi.
The first half was a cagey affair with both sides sizing each other up in the opening exchanges. Lekhwiya registered their first chance of the tie with twenty minutes on the clock. Winger Ismael Mohammed picked out Ali Afif, however his curled effort flew just wide.
Djamel Belmadi’s side slowly begun to ramp up the pressure on their table-topping rivals and began to dominate the play as the first half progressed. The closest Lekhwiya came to a goal in the opening half was in the 33rd minute. The lively Mohammed Ismael was denied on the line by Jaish defender Lucas Mendes who put his body on the line to deny Lekhwiya the opening goal.
Lekhiwya where limited to few chances by Jaish in the opening half, however they did manage one more chance before the break. Lekhwiya midfielder Luiz Martin found striker Yusef al-Arabi and was promptly pounced on by Saoud al-Khater.
The second half was again a tight affair, however Lekhwiya fortuitously  took the lead with the game heading into the final twenty minutes. Substitute Yusef Msakni was picked out on the right hand side. The Tunisian international unleashed a shot from the left hand side which bounced off Lucas Mendes and into the back of the net.
Jaish didn’t waste any time and promptly found their way back into the tie two minutes later.  Star striker Romarinho struck his eleventh goal of the season, the QSL player of the month for November skipped by a static Chico Flores and drilled a low shot into the back of the net to pull Lamouchi’s side back into the game.
The once tight and tetchy game opened out with both sides looking for the vital win. Fortune favoured Lekhwiya and they grabbed a winner in the 80th minute. Substitute Moez Ali’s shot pinballed off two Jaish defenders and found its way into the back of the net on the rebound.
The win means that Jaish’s lead at the top of the QSL standings has now been cut down to one point, with Lekhwiya hot on their heels.

Honours even between Al Kharaitiyat and Al Ahli
Yousef Adam’s Al Ahli took the lead in the first half but could not hold on for the win as Kharaitiyat ended up drawing the game courtesy of an own goal from John Benson.
Al Ahli opened the scoring in the eighteenth minute with a headed goal from their captain Meshal Abdulla. Ndombe Mubele knocked in a fine cross and found strike-partner Abdulla who leaped above his marker to head the ball over the keeper, Ahmed Sufyan and into the goal. The talismanic striker got his name on the scoresheet for the seventh time this season ensuring his status as one of the best players in the league.
Meshal Abdulla had a chance to add a second goal in the seventieth minute but his effort was saved by Ahmed Sufyan in the Kharaitiyat goal. Kharaitiyat had a chance to level when Abdelhadi Ameen passed the ball to Erik Paartalu inside the box whose improvised shot hit the bar and fell to Jeremy Bokila, who blasted the ball out of play.
In the eighty-second minute, Kharaitiyat won a free kick and the resulting shot ended up in the goal to level the score line. Anwar Diba’s free kick came off Al Ahli defender John Benson’s head and went straight in for an own goal. Ahmed al-Ajlani’s Kharaitiyat held on for the final ten minutes to register an important point for themselves.
The result leaves both teams in the same position in the table. Al Ahli now have ten points from as many games and are eighth in the table while Kharaitiyat languish in the relegation zone with six points from ten games.

Korbi strikes to defeat Muaither
Al Sailiya were thoroughly tested by newcomers Muaither as the men in blue won a hard-fought clash 1-0 at Al Ahli stadium. Al Sailiya’s Sayaf al-Korbi produced the only goal of the match in the 34th minute of the round 10 clash in the QSL.
Muaither striker Ayoub Ouadrassi missed two easy chances in the first seven minutes, both from close range shots that were expertly blocked by Al Sailiya goalkeeper Gregory Gomis. Minutes later Muaither’s Brazilian midfielder William Schuster raced towards the Al Sailiya goal but with only goalkeeper to beat, he misfired as the ball ricocheted off the legs of keeper Gomis in the tenth minute.
Seconds later, Al Sailiya notched their first chance of note thanks to Cameroonian import Paul Efoulou. The 33-year-old striker hoodwinked Muaither defenders Huthaifa al-Salemi and Saeed Eisa before slotting the ball past keeper Basel Zaidan but the shot narrowly missed the goalpost.
In the 34th minute, Al Sailiya opened the scoring through al-Korbi. Mubark al-Saadi produced a cross from the flank only to see a team-mate’s header blocked by Muaither goalkeeper Zaidan. The loose ball fell to the feet of al-Korbi who headed home with consummate ease to give his side the lead.
In the first 20 minutes of the second half, Muaither clearly showed greater urgency to find the equaliser but lack of quality in front of the Al Saliya goalmouth restricted the newly promoted side.
Two minutes later, Muaither’s al-Salemi wasted an open-goal chance when he ended up touching the ball with his hand in an attempt to deflect a header from close range. In the 84th minute, a missed chance by Ayoub Ouadrassi from close range summed up the day for Muaither who produced sustained attacks in the second half.

Results
Al Sailiya 1 – 0 Muaither
Al Kharaitiyat 1 – 1 Al Ahli  
El Jaish 1 – 2 Lekhwiya SC
Al Shahania 1 – 2 Al Arabi