Substitute Ali Asadalla struck a second-half brace as Al Sadd thrashed Al Gharafa 4-0 in the Expo Stars League match at the Khalifa International Stadium on Thursday.
The win saw the Wolves, who dominated in all departments and struck twice in each half to leave The Cheetahs hapless, go top of the table. In the other matches of the day, Philippe Coutinho and Michael Olunga scored a goal each as Al Duhail beat Al Markhiya 2-1 while Al Arabi edged Qatar SC 1-0. Their third win of the league saw the Red Knights leapfrog their way up to third with a total of 10 points from three wins while Al Markhiya were left searching for their first win of the league.
For Al Sadd, the architect of their victory was striker Akram Afif, who scored the opening goal in the 27th minute with a penalty and set up another two as Hassan al-Haydos scored another in the 30th minute and Asadalla got the brace in the 54th and 60th minutes. The high intensity match, however, was marred by some skirmishes between players of the two sides and in the 90th minute Al Gharafa’s Lyanco Vojnovic was given the marching orders for violent conduct against Afif following the former’s bad foul against another Al Sadd player.
The steamrolling Al Sadd left Al Gharafa shell-shocked from the very start and the only brief top moment for The Cheetahs was in the 19th minute when Yohan Boli moved threateningly into the box from the right but in trying to keep pace lost control of the ball as Al Sadd defenders made a clearance.
Al Sadd’s Mohamed Waad Albayati soon brought up his team’s first big action as he made a strike in front of the goal and Lyanco Vojnovic handled the ball while taking an evasive action. The referee immediately signaled to the spot and the curly-haired Afif made no mistake from with the penalty.
Minutes later, Afif made a superb move in the left flank as he moved the ball to an inrushing Paulo Otavio who sent in a cross to Haydos to make a left-footed kick on the volley and the ball rushed into the bottom right corner (2-0). Al Gharafa did try to counter Al Sadd’s attack but their close attempts missed the targets. Seydou Sano and Yacine Brahimi at times did come in scoring range but they also lacked finishing.
Early in the second half, Al Sadd scored their third goal in an almost repeat of the earlier one. This time it was Haydos sending the ball to an unmarked Mohammed Waad Albayati on the left, who then crossed the ball over to Asadalla to score off his left foot on the volley beating Al Gharafa goalkeeper Yousof Hassan Ali to his left (3-0).
The shock left Al Gharafa further bamboozled and Al Sadd kept attacking. In the 58 th minute, Afif’s shot from the left of the box missed to the right as Al Gharafa survived another onslaught.
Minutes later, Afif from deep left provided an unmarked Asadalla a beauty of a pass to head in his team’s fourth goal