Held back by a determined Markhiya defence in the goalless opening half and trailing by a goal in the second, Duhail scored three goals in a matter of five minutes to seal the deal.
After Markhiya substitute Ali Saeed al-Mohannadi opened the scoring in the 55th minute of the match, the Red Knights rallied to bounce back, bombarding the rivals with goals in the 73rd minute (Khaled Mohamed), 76th minute (Michael Olunga) and 78th minute (Nam Tae-Hee).
Duhail had their chances in the first half of the match as well, but their strikers could not connect well, with crucial kicks missing the posts. Almoez Ali once even got the ball into the net on the half-hour mark, but it was ruled offside.
After half-time, Markhiya surprised their fancied rivals when Ali waiting at the top of the box was given a fine pass by Driss Fettouhi and he broke through to beat a diving goalkeeper for the ball to go into the far left corner of the net. Hit by the reversal, Duhail reorganized themselves to stage the comeback.
They needed a bit of time, but they hit back strongly. The equaliser came from a 25-yard long volley strike of Khaled Mohamed which beat players and the goalkeeper diving to his right.
Olunga then fetched the lead minutes later with a brilliant left-foot strike from just outside the box that went in like a rocket. Nam then joined in the celebrations scoring his fourth goal of the season while rushing in and being given a good pass by Olunga right in front of the goal.
Boli stars in Rayyan’s win
Al Rayyan handed Al Ahli a 4-0 defeat at the Hamad Bin Khalifa Stadium yesterday. The Lions roared and rode on a brace from their start striker Yohan Boli subdue their rivals. Their goals came from Abdulaziz Hatem (16th minute), Jesisson Vargas (54th minute), and from Boli (83rd and 90+5).The 56th minute witnessed the red-card suspension of Al Ahli’s Mohamed Abdullah al-Ishaq. The win takes Rayyan to ninth in the table, while Ahli stayed seventh.
In another match, Al Sailiya and Umm Salal played out a 1-1 draw. Sailiya took the lead through Mehrdad Mohamedi in the 32nd minute, but Adel Alawi equalised for Umm Salal in the 37th minute. Sailiya and Umm Salal stayed in the 11th and 12th position respectively.
