Al Sadd and Al Duhail to lock horns in Qatar Cup final

Arch rivals Al Sadd and Al Duhail will face off in the Qatar Cup final on April 6, after the two giants registered a thrilling semi-final victories yesterday. Sadd beat Al Arabi 3-1 in an exciting first semi-final at home, while league leaders Duhail came back from a goal down to edge spirited Al Wakrah 2-1.
Sadd-Arabi encounter was played at a fast pace almost throughout match and became a battle between a 10-man Sadd and a nine-man Arabi following strong tackles and rough challenges.
Sadd, who led 2-0 at half-time, eventually went on to win with their goals coming from Jung Woo-Young (41st minute), Baghdad Bounedjah (45+1) and substitute Musaab Khedir (79th minute). Arabi’s only goal was courtesy an own goal from Boualem Khoukhi in the 86th minute.
Not just the three red cards, there were also five yellow cards shown as players jostled and tried their best to outdo the rivals till the final whistle providing great thrills to the large number of fans present at the venue.
The red cards were given to Arabi’s Ahmed Suhail (41st minute) and Marc Muniesa (63rd minute), and to Sadd’s Tarek Salman (54th minute). Arabi showed very good defence, with Sadd’s livewire Akram Afif initiating fine moves down the left and their forward line co-ordinating extremely well.
Arabi too looked for openings and Yousef Msakni was there to strike at every opportunity. But with both sides holding tight, the game slowed down a bit in the later stages. In the 35th minute, Sadd’s Pedro Miguel was flashed with a yellow for back tackling and soon Santi Cazorla was also fouled by Arabi’s Ahmed Fathy.
And then followed a mishap, minutes before the first half, which changed the complexion of the game entirely for Arabi. In the 41st minute, Ahmed Suhail was flashed with a red card for stepping on to Bounedjah’s left shoe when the player was chasing the ball towards the danger area.
The resultant free-kick was taken by Cazorla who sent in a perfect dipper for Jung to head an equally pleasing opening goal much to the delight of Sadd fans. The Wolves added to the delight with another beautiful goal within minutes. Making a move, Pedro passed one to Cazorla who moved it to Bounedjah and he broke past three Arabi defenders, clinging on to the ball and keeping control. He then coolly got it just past an on looking goalkeeper Mahmoud Abunada, into the far corner of the net.
In the second Tarek Salman was shown red for bringing down Arabi’s Hamed Ismail just at the top of the box. In the 63rd minute, a menacing Afif was pushed by Muniesa only for the latter to receive marching orders.
The only joy for Arabi, despite their many attempts, came when an Arabi free-kick was sent into his own goal by a man-marking Khoukhi. Given a ray of hope, Al Arabi tried hard and in the 88th minute, a Msakni free-kick went just over the crossbar to land over the net.
The very next minute, Msakni had another chance, but the goalkeeper rushed in to spoil the chance. Khoukhi, aiming to make amends for his error, then produced a flying kick which dangerously hit the crossbar.
Later, Duhail had to dig deep to get past Wakrah, who went ahead after Mohamed Benyettou struck in the 15th minute. Michael Olunga equalised for Duhail six minutes into the second half, before Nam Tae-hee 72nd strike put them ahead and which eventually turned out to be the winner.