Al Gharafa registered a 2-0 victory over Muaither in the Expo Stars League match at the Hamad Bin Khalifa Stadium on Monday.
The win moved Al Gharafa’s points tally to 34, while Muaither, who drew 1-1 with Al Ahli last week, remained on 11 points.
Serbia’s Lyanco Vojnovic (64th minute) and Yacine Brahimi (75th minute) scored for Al Gharafa in the thrilling encounter.
Title contenders Al Gharafa were expectedly much in control of the game right from the start of the match, but they were quite unlucky with converting their several opportunities into goals early enough, with their Algerian star Brahimi and Ferjani Sassi guilty of wasting a couple of chances.
Despite sustained pressure for most parts of the first half, The Cheetahs were unable to penetrate the defensive backline of Muaither, who were resolute in staving off the waves of attacks from their opponents.
Just as the match was approaching the half-time break, the tide started to turn in favour of Muaither, who began to launch a series of attacks of their own, and they could have gone one up in two minutes of added time had Tiago De Leonco been more clinical.
A highly entertaining first half ended with a clean sheet on both sides. Nothing much changed in the scheme of things in the second half as Al Gharafa began where they ended with most of the attacks coming from their half of the field while Muaither were forced to defend for very much of the time.
Brahimi missed arguably Al Gharafa’s best chance so far in the 55th minute when he blasted wide a sitter when perfectly set up with a sublime cross by Amro Abdelfatah Surag, much to the disappointment of the bench and stands.
What would have been an otherwise frustrated night for Al Gharafa eventually turned into something to rejoice about as Vojnovic gave them the lead in the 64th minute through a powerful header from a corner kick perfectly taken by Brahimi.
Not relenting on their oars and in a bid to further strengthen their attack, Al Gharafa brought in Dame Traore to replace Farid Boulaya in the 74th minute.
The substitution had an instant impact on the match as they doubled their lead a minute later with Brahimi fending off two of Muaither’s defenders before lobbing the ball over the onrushing goalkeeper Ivanildo Rodriguesdos into an empty net after an across-the-half pass by Khalifa Ababacar.
With two-goals up, the pressure seemed lifted from Al Gharafa’s shoulders as the team began to cool down the tempo of the game while drawing Muaither into their own half with a view of hitting back with a counter.
The situation remained the same till the end of the match, as Al Gharafa ran away with the much-needed maximum points and a clean sheet.
Al Shamal beat
Al Markhiya 2-0
Al Shamal kept up their winning touch as they beat a gritty Al Markhiya 2-0 at the Al Bayt Stadium on Monday.
Al Markhiya, who were quite forceful in their attacks in the opening half, were pushed back in defence after they were reduced to ten-man following the expulsion of Tameen al-Muhaza in 45+4th minute of the match.
Al Muhaza had landed his foot on the mouth of Al Shamal’s Faisal Azadi while going for the ball inside the box.
Al Shamal then struck through Faisal in the 68th minute and later in the 84th minute through Ricardo Gomes.
The second win in a row for Al Shamal moved them to eight place in the rankings with 18 points while Al Markhiya remained twelfth with 8 points.
The clash was exciting and Al Markhiya, who earlier held Al Duhail and had beaten Al Wakrah, showed sparks in their attack early but lacked bite in finishing.
In the 33rd minute, Yusupha Nije rushed inside the box to make a header but couldn’t get to the ball and also the offside flag was up. There were a few move raids from Al Markhiya before Al Munhaza received the marching orders.
In the second session, Al Shamal came out with all guns blazing and attacked from both flanks.
Al Markhiya goalkeeper Oumar Barry had a lot of work to do as made some fine diving saves in the 63rd and 65th minutes.
A few minutes later a quick Al Shamal coordinated effort had the goalkeeper foxed to his right. Substitute Fahad al-Bayati lobbed in a ball from the left as Younes Belhanda moved it to his right and Ricardo Gomes let it go for an incoming Faisal to make the strike into the left corner of the goal.
With advantage gained, Al Shamal continued with a flurry of attacks. In the 73rd minute, their under-21 player Mahdi Salem’s kick touched the fingertips of a stretched goalkeeper for the ball to go just wide to the right of the goal.
Next minute, goalkeeper Barry had to make another quick save.
In the 77th minute, Belhanda made an attempt from the top of the box but he shot wide to the right.
Al Shamal eventually struck again as Gomes struck from the top of the box following a fine move to rattle the back of the net.
Al Rayyan will take on Umm Salal and Qatar SC will meet Al Ahli today.
“The next match will be difficult, given that Umm Salal are considered as one of the strong teams, so we must provide our best in this match in order to obtain victory. We are coming from a series of consecutive victories and this is due to the outstanding performance and level of the players during the past matches,” Rayyan coach Leonardo Jardim said.