El Jaish and Gharafa win, boost hopes of qualifying for knockouts

Agencies/Doha/Dubai

Qatar’s El Jaish and Al Gharafa both scored convincing victories to enhance their chances of qualifying for the knockout stage of the AFC Champions League yesterday. In Doha, Wagner Ribeiro struck twice as El Jaish secured their first win of this year’s tournament with a 3-1 verdict over Al Jazira at Al Rayyan Stadium, while in Dubai, Djibril Cisse, Hamed Shami, Nene and Lawrence Quaye were on target as Al Gharafa beat Al Nasr.

Ribeiro gave El Jaish the lead after just seven minutes before Mahir Yusuf doubled his side’s lead 10 minutes later, only for Subair Khater to reduce the deficit in first half stoppage time.

However, a second strike by Ribeiro 13 minutes after the restart restored El Jaish’s two-goal cushion and they managed to maintain their advantage to pick up all three points.

Both teams went into the game having picked up just one point from their opening two fixtures, with El Jaish drawing 3-3 with Tractorsazi on Matchday 2 while Al Jazira had secured a 1-1 draw with Al Shabab at the same stage of the competition.

Right from the start, though, it was El Jaish who always looked the more likely to strike and it came as little surprise when Wagner Ribeiro opened the scoring, the Brazilian sending Saad Sattam free down the right before receiving the return pass and slotting the ball beyond Ali Khaseif in the visitors’ goal. Ten minutes later, El Jaish doubled their advantage when Yusuf struck with a low left foot shot that found the bottom corner of Khasief’s goal following an assist by Adriano.

A long range effort from Khaled al- Zrigi and a header from Abdullah Aish were just off target as El Jaish continued to press, but the Qataris were made to pay for those misses when Khater’s in-swinging free kick from the left three minutes into first-half stoppage time missed everyone and nestled in the far side of the goal, giving Al Jazira hope.

Those dreams, though, were dashed in the 58th minute when Wagner Ribeiro struck once again, beginning and finishing the move that saw his shot go across Khaseif and into the corner of the goal to secure all three points.

In Dubai, Al Gharafa survived a second-half fightback from Al Nasr to boost their chances of securing just a second appearance in the knockout stages in Group C.

First-half goals from French striker Cisse, Shami and Brazilian midfielder Nene had seemingly put 2010 quarter-finalists Al Gharafa on course to comfortably secure a second win of the campaign having beaten Iran’s Sepahan 3-1 at home three weeks ago.

But two goals in three minutes before the hour mark from Habib al-Fardan and Bruno Correa gave the home side home of avoiding a third defeat of the campaign until Quaye sealed the win for Al Gharafa with six minutes remaining. Having scored twice as Al Gharafa picked up the first win of their seventh AFC Champions League appearance last month, Cisse opened the scoring after 24 minutes with an unstoppable downward header from Nene’s free-kick. Nene was again involved seven minutes later as the Brazilian midfielder’s pass caught out the Al Nasr defence and Shami raced into behind the static backline before sliding in to guide the ball into the roof of the net with goalkeeper Ahmad Shambih given no chance.

And Nene deservedly added a third in first-half stoppage time as the former Paris St Germain midfielder picked himself up after being pulled back by Khalifa Mubarak inside the area before dispatching the resulting penalty coolly past Shambih with virtually the last kick of the opening 45 minutes.

Al Nasr, though, found a way back into the contest four minutes before the hour mark as al-Fardan’s close range header looped over Al Gharafa goalkeeper Qasem Burhan who had been largely untroubled for the majority of the opening 45 minutes.

And two minutes later Burhan was again beaten as Correa followed up with an accomplished finish from inside the area after Takayuki Morimoto’s clever flick from Khaled Sarwashi’s cross had been blocked by the Al Gharafa goalkeeper at his near post.

But with six minutes remaining Quaye finally put the result beyond doubt as Qatar international midfielder found space on the edge of the Al Nasr area before firing a low shot into the bottom corner past Shambih.