Sagbo goal helps Umm Salal pip Sailiya

Umm Salal jumped above their QNB Stars League rivals Al Sailiya, thanks to a hard-fought 1-0 victory at the Al Gharafa Stadium yesterday. Ivorian striker Yannick Sagbo scored the only goal of the match.
This was a tussle in the race for the fourth place and Al Sailiya had the brightest start, with Temurkhuja Abdukholiqov neatly controlling a pass before firing narrowly over from distance.
However, it was Umm Salal who scored after Adil Rhaili was cynically brought down by Mostafa Abdelhamid 25 yards from the goal. Sagbo stepped up with confidence, struck the ball around the wall and into the top right corner.
Not long after the restart, Wagner Ribeiro nearly equalised in similar fashion. His free-kick was cutely struck across the face of the goal, but travelled marginally wide of the post.
Maher Yousef would have felt he doubled the lead with a header. But frustratingly for the Orange Fortress, he could not keep his shot inside the post. The home side were able to hold on for victory and move to the fourth position on 27 points, while Al Sailiya remained on 25 points.
Meanwhile, Al Arabi secured an invaluable 2-1 victory at home to Al Kharaitiyat.
Al Arabi’s goals were scored by Khalfan Ibrahim in the 41st minute and Mohamed al-Hamed in the 84th, while Mahmoud Abdelhalim pulled one back for Al Kharaitiyat in the 88th.
As was expected with two teams competing at the wrong end of the table, the match was full of tension with little between the sides in the opening stages. Khalfan came closest after a mazy dribble into the area, but his shot was not strong enough to beat the keeper. The mercurial player was not to be denied when Diego Jardel was fouled outside the area prior to half-time.
His precise free-kick looped over the wall and past the helpless opposition keeper to open the scoring. Al Kharaitiyat came into the second half with much more venom and were almost rewarded when Al Arabi defender Ivan Fuster nearly headed into his own net.
Khalfan though was putting in a man-of-the-match performance and nearly doubled the lead late on with a carbon copy free-kick, only to see it drift wide of the upright.
The result was sealed in the 84th in extraordinary fashion, thanks to the predatory instinct of substitute al-Hamed. Having beaten the offside trap near the halfway line, he chased the ball down and chipped it in past the goalkeeper from 30 yards to spark mass celebrations.
Abdelhalim grabbed a consolation at the end of the game, but it was not enough to prevent Al Arabi from securing all three points to take their tally to 15.