Al Gharafa battled their way to a 1-0 win over Al Markhiya in a see-saw affair in the QNB Stars League match at the Thani Bin Jassim Stadium yesterday. The winning strike came from Ahmed Alaaeldin (second from left) in the 88th minute after Yacine Brahimi worked his way inside the penalty area to provide Alaaeldin the golden chance in front of the goal. Two minutes later, Al Markhiya’s Ayoub Azzi received a red card (after a second yellow) as he was fouled for bringing down rival team’s Mehdi Tahrat while going for a header. The win saw Al Gharafa move to the fourth spot in the rankings with 29 points from 18 matches.



Al Shamal shored up themselves into the 9th place in the rankings with a 1-0 win over Al Ahli at the Hamad Bin Khalifa Stadium yesterday. Amjad Atwan scored the winner for Al Shamal in the 40th minute of the match. Al Ahli’s Hossein Kanaani received a red card in the 88th minute of the match. Al Shamal now have 17 points from 17 matches while Al Ahli are 7th with 21 points.