Duhail’s Nam Tae-Hee (right) vies for the ball with Al Gharafa’s Assim Omer Madebo during the Qatar Cup semifinal yesterday.


Al Duhail and hat-trick hero Nam Tae-Hee pulled off a second-half masterclass to convincingly brush aside Al Gharafa with a 6-1 victory in the Qatar Cup semi-final at the Al Sadd Stadium yesterday.

All goals came in the second half through Murad Naji (47th minute), Ismail Mohamed (54th), Youssef El Arabi (76th) and Tae-Hee (69th, 79th and 86th minutes).
Mehdi Taremi grabbed a consolation goal for Al Gharafa two minutes into stoppage time.
The first half was a battle throughout, best characterised by yellow cards awarded to both sides following some rash challenges on their counterparts. The only real chance of the half came from Khaled Muftah whose curled shot produced a smart save from Al Gharafa goalkeeper Qasem Burhan. 
What the first half lacked in chances was quickly forgotten after the break when Al Gharafa went close to breaking the deadlock, a missed opportunity that proved very costly. Moments later, Murad collected the ball from 40 yards out, advanced a few paces before striking a thunderous shot from 25 yards that fizzled past a helpless Qasem.
Ismail then cut in from the byline, deceived the keeper and coolly slotted home from a tight angle. 
With Al Duhail in the ascendancy, Tae-Hee stepped up to take a free-kick on the edge of the area, curled it around the wall and straight into the far corner for goal number three of the night.
El Arabi got in on the action as he converted from close range following a nice interchange on the right side of the field. Nam, not content with one wondrous free-kick, produced a carbon copy of his first goal as he struck again into the corner of the net, before following this up with a solo run and goal in the latter stages.
Mehdi pulled one back from the penalty spot, but Al Gharafa will be disappointed with the result having started the game so positively, but ultimately collapsed under the pressure of great opposition.
Al Duhail will now be full of confidence when they meet Al Sadd, who beat Al Rayyan 4-2 on penalties (2-2 after regular time) in the other semi-final on Saturday, in the Qatar Cup final on Friday at the same venue.


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