A last-gasp goal from Omar al-Somah, after he had earlier missed a penalty kick, yesterday saw Al Arabi pull off a stunning 2-2 draw against in-form Al Sadd in an exciting Week 17 affair of the Expo Stars League at the Al Thumama Stadium.
In the day’s other match yesterday, Al Wakrah beat Al Duhail 2-1 at Al Janoub Stadium.
Earlier, Al Sadd’s mercurial Afif struck twice in a space of three minutes (18th and 20th) for an early double blow to the opponents before Al Arabi battled scoring one through Rafinha in the 38th minute.
Rafinha later provided a golden long range assist from the right to a leaping al-Somah in the 90+9th minute to produce a header which beat Al Sadd’s goalkeeper Saad al-Sheeb on the bounce before going in. A VAR check ruled no off-side as The Dream Team celebrated the equalizer against the leaders.
The goal also resurrected al-Somah’s earlier penalty miss in the 89th minute when his kick to the left corner of the goal was superbly stopped by a diving al-Sheeb. The penalty was conceded after Al Sadd substitute Musaab Khidir made a hand ball while trying to evade a kick as he tried to defend.
The one point gained from the draw saw Al Arabi’s tally move to 22 points from 16 games as they remained in fifth place while Al Sadd continued to lead the rankings with 37 points.
Al Sadd had begun the match robustly as the mercurial Afif sent in a rasping strike from the well outside the box after receiving a superb pass from Paulo Otavio from the left. Minutes later, Afif did a solo as he broke through from the midfield beating defenders to lob the ball from outside the box over an advancing Al Arabi goalkeeper Jassim al-Hail’s head. The double strike did jolt Al Arabi but they hit back as Rafinha made a solid second attempt from inside the box after his first kick had rebounded off a defender.
Rafinha did a more telling job later when he made a long and precise left-footed kick from the right to al-Somah positioned in front of the goal.
In the first leg match between these two teams, Al Arabi were 1-0 winners.