Al Rayyan leapfrogged Al Gharafa to the fourth spot in the Qatar Stars League standings with a 1-0 win over Al Shahania at the Grand Hamad Stadium in the first game of 2017 yesterday.
Al Shahania, who are currently staring at a relegation battle with 12 points, having registered just two wins so far this season, were hoping to bounce back from their heaviest-ever defeat, a ten-goal thumping by Lekhwiya, and give their new coach Igor Stemac a good start to 2017.
However, that wasn’t to be courtesy an early goal from their Ahmed Alaaeldin, who scored in the 12th minute with a fine header.
After getting in front of his marker inside Al Shahania’s 18 yard box, Alaaeldin leapt well to connect with a fast cross delivered from the right wing. Despite Al Shahania’s goalkeeper getting a fingertip to the ball, it was too high and had too much pace and went in off the underside of the cross bar to give Michael Laudrup’s men the lead.
Al Shahania had their best chance of the first half when they were awarded a free kick in a dangerous area after Fahad Khalfan countered and was brought down by Al Rayyan’s Gonzalo Viera just outside the box. Instead of shooting, Al Shahania went for what looked like a training ground routine and flicked it out to the left wing for a cross which was nearly converted by Khalfan who was lurking on the back post. Al Rayyan’s goalkeeper, Oumar Barry, somehow managed to get down to his left post in time and save it to ensure Al Rayyan went into the halftime break 1-0 up.
It was one-way traffic in the second half as Al Rayyan set about looking for some additional decisive goals. Laudrup’s men should have finished the game three or four up after a glut of chances and Alaaeldin should have left with a hat trick after missing a handful of easy chances.
The three points leave Al Rayyan in fourth position in the league with 25 points, even as Gharafa are in action today and could regain the crucial spot.