Wakrah climb to third after exciting victory over Ahli

Al Wakrah’s upward flight in the Expo Stars League continued as The Blue Wave edged past Al Ahli 3-2 at the Saoud Bin Abdulrahman Stadium yesterday.
Mohamed Benyettou (24th and 36th minute penalty) and Ayoub Assal (48th minute) scored for the winners. Oumar Sekou (11th minute penalty) and Amin Tihi (90+2 minute) were the scorers for Al Ahli. The win saw Al Wakrah move into the third place in the table with 21 points from 10 matches. Al Ahli remained 10th on nine points from 11 games.
Al Wakrah had a big chance in the fifth minute when Ayoub Assal received a fine lob pass and ran in swiftly, but his attempt was foiled by an advancing Al Ahli goalkeeper Marwan Sherif.
Soon Navid Dordazeh drew a foul with Al Wakrah’s Traint Sainsbury trying to check him inside the danger area and Al Ahli won a penalty. Sekou slammed in the kick into the bottom left corner as Al Ahli went up the lead.
This set up a robust action with Al Wakrah on the attack. Soon, Jacinto Dala won a free-kick in the attacking half and the following action saw Assal send down a through cross from the right to the left for Benyettou to produce a fine equaliser (1-1).
More exciting play arrived and in the 30th minute. Sekou tackled two Al Wakrah players to make a powerful through pass for Dorzadeh to run down and make a telling strike, but it was cut off by an alert Al Wakrah goalkeeper Saoud al-Khater.
Al Wakrah retaliated with counter-attacks and in one such threatening move Al Ahli captain Jassem Mohamed erred with a foul on Rabeh Boussafi and a VAR check called for a penalty. Benyettou converted the spot kick successfully and Al Wakrah fans were up in delight (2-1).
On resumption of play in the second half, Al Wakrah displayed their fine form scoring their third goal of the match with as many as five players being involved in the big action before Assal eventually kicked the ball in. It began with a free-kick taken by Khalid Munir and Dala at the top of the box deflected the ball with a backflip into left of the box for Bussafi to make a centre and Sainsbury dived making a header and the goalkeeper got his hands to it but the ball went to Assal to complete the goal (3-1).
Al Ahli now had a big challenge to overcome the deficit, but they defended well while finding space to attack.
Their hard efforts fetched them another goal in the first minute of added time and following a corner as substitute Naim Sliti made a measured corner kick from the left and Tihi from the far right side hit a header down between two defenders and the ball bounced over into the right corner of the goal well out of reach of the goalkeeper (3-2).
There was not more time left from the additional five minutes of injury time and Al Wakrah were home with their sixth win of the season under coach Marquez Lopez.
Meanwhile, a late Yousef Msakni strike saw Al Arabi escape with a 2-2 draw against a fighting Muaither at the Hamad Bin Khalifa Stadium. Muaither seemed headed for a second win in the league when Msakni struck in added time to save The Dream Team the blushes.
While Rafinha Alcantara (35th minute) and Msakni (90+9 minute) scored the goals for Al Arabi, Denis Alibec (45+4 minute) and substitute Mohammed Salah El Neel (90th-minute penalty) found the target for Muaither. With the draw, Al Arabi stated at seventh spot with 13 points, while Muaither are at 11th and penultimate spot with six points.
In the other match, Umm Salal and Markhiya played out a 1-1 draw at the Thani Bin Jassim Stadium. Both goals were scored by Umm Salal’s players, with Oussama Tannane getting the equalizer in the 42nd minute after Marouane Louadni had scored an own goal in the sixth minute.
With the result, Umm Salal are sixth with 15 points, while Al Markhiya, who have only registered one win from 11 fixtures, are bottom of the table.