Al Gharafa scored a thrilling 4-2 win over Al Shahania in the Qatar Stars League (QSL) match at the Suhaim Bin Hamad Stadium yesterday.
Umm Salal defeated Al Arabi 3-0 at the Al Thumama Stadium. In another match of the day at the Al Janoub Stadium, Al Shamal prevailed over a 10-man Al Wakrah 3-0.
The win saw The Cheetahs remain in the top four of the standings with 21 points while Al Shahania slid to eighth with 11 points. Their fourth win of the league saw Umm Salal climb up to 6th place in the standings with a tally of 14 points while Al Arabi remained in 10th place with 10 points at the half way mark of the championship. Al Shamal with a fifth win of the season moved to 5th spot with 16 points while Al Wakrah are 7th with 14 points.
Both Al Shahania and Al Gharafa teams dished out a super battle with The Cheetahs going up the lead early in the first half. A tense fight ensued in the second half with five goals being scored including an Own Goal for Al Shahania. The stoppage time play also saw a goal each for both sides.
The goals for Al Gharafa came from Florinel Coman (19th minute), Marc Muniesa (66th minute Own Goal), Ferjani Sassi (70th minute & 90+4 minute), Al Shahania scored through Pelle van Amersfoort (76th minute) and Lotfi Majder (90+2 minute).
Al Gharafa looked for an early breakthrough and in the 11th minute came close when a Rabeh Yahia Boussafi cross was headed by Joselu but Al Shahania’s goalkeeper Shehab Ellethy dived to his left to make a fine save.
Al Gharafa however succeeded soon with an unmarked Coman on the left deflected in a corner kick. Gharafa’s lead would have been doubled in the 34th minute when a telling Yacine Brahimi strike was cut off by a diving Ellethy, this time to his right.
Al Shahania also had a fair share of attack and just before half time Amersfoort struck hard at the goal but Al Gharafa’s tall goalkeeper Khalifa Ababacar stood like a rock to collect it.
In added time, Al Shahania made more forays and again Ababacar made a good save by diving long to his left. After the break, in the 55th minute a Brahimi attempt was foiled by Al Shahania’s goalkeeper.
Eleven minutes later Al Shahania suffered a blow as a frantic attempt from Muniesa saw him head a corner kick from the left into his own goal. Brahimi soon returned to big action as he lobbed a cross to Joselu, who headed it to a waiting Sassi to make another header and score (3-0). Al Shahania’s repeated attack attempts soon reaped dividends for them as an Amersfoort header off a corner kick found its way into the net (1-3).
Adding to Al Shahania’s excitement was a wonderful goal from Majder in stoppage time from the top of the box that went straight into the far corner (2-3).
Al Shahania now hoped for an equaliser in the remaining time but their hopes were dashed as Brahimi and Sassi combined again as the former made a lob from the left and the latter made a successful header (4-2).
In the dying moments, Joselu again came close to scoring but failed to go past a lone goalkeeper but Al Gharafa rejoiced all the same with the victory. Kenji Gorre (5th minute), Antonio Mance (27th minute), and Oussama Tannane (38th minute) struck for Umm Salal as they beat a hapless Al Arabi.
Umm Salal shocked their fancied rivals right at the start firing the opening salvo with a well co-ordinated effort. Captain Victor Lekhal moved the ball down the right to Mance who provided a fine cross which was caught by Gorre just out of the outstretched hand of Al Arabi goalkeeper Mohamed Saeed Ibrahim to score.
The goal left Al Arabi shocked and they tried to launch an offensive but were held back by the strong Umm Salal defence. While Al Arabi’s defence too appeared strong, it was smartly broken through by Umm Salal.
With Al Arabi trying to mark Umm Salal attack line, Lekhal chose to lob the ball to his left as Mance volleyed a left-footer to find the second goal for the Orange Fortress.
Six minutes later, Al Arabi managed to break past the rival defence as Rodrigo unleashed a shot which was deflected by a diving Ibrahim but there was Abdullah Essa al-Sulaiti at hand to put the ball into the net. The joy for Al Arabi was however short-lived as the referee ruled the player off-side.
Five minutes later, Umm Salal delivered another blow with Mance this time making a lob again to the left of the danger area from where an unmarked Tannane struck the third goal for his team.
The second session was more subdued comparatively as Al Arabi tried hard to challenge the opposition but with no success.
In the 66th minute, Rodrigo again fired from top of the box but his kick was cut off by the rival goalkeeper. In the 72nd minute, Umm Salal threatened to score again but this time a Tannane kick hits the bottom of the left post before being parried to safety.
Al Shamal upstaged a 10-man Al Wakrah 3-0 with hotshot Baghdad Bounedjah opening the scoring for Shamal in the 25th minute before Mohammed Omar (45th minute) and Suhaib Gannan (90+7 minute) added to the tally. Bounedjah, beat an offside trap, following an overhead cross by Mohammed Musa, before hitting home a right-footed shot from the centre of the box. The goal, though initially contested, was eventually made to stand after a lengthy VAR review.
Al Shamal doubled the lead at the dot of half time with Bounedjah muscling his way past Al Wakrah defence before freeing the ball for the Algerian Omar to simply slot home. Things turned from bad to worse for Al Wakrah in the 71st minute when Abdeaziz Mitwali’s initial yellow card for a dangerous foul on Al Shamal’s Younes Belhanda was upgraded to a red after a lengthy VAR review.
With their one-man advantage, things could not have gone better for Al Shamal as they relentlessly attempted to troll Al Wakrah. Al Shamal found the back of the net again in seven minutes of added time through Gannan, whose right-footed shot from the centre of the box into the bottom left corner following another superb assist by Bounedjah.