Al Rayyan sound warning with 2-1 ‘Clasico’ victory

Not for nothing it’s called the ‘Qatar Clasico.’With the best crowd of the current QNB Stars League season in attendancecreating a lively ambience, the players must have felt they had anextra obligation to deliver.And deliver they did – a thriller, no less, at the Sheikh Jassim binHamad Stadium – as Al Rayyan buried their recent run of misfortunesagainst famed rivals Al Sadd with highly entertaining a 2-1 victory,with Abderrazzak Hamdallah and Koh Myong-Jin finding the net in thesecond half.The win helped Michael Laudrup’s Lions to go level on points (15) withAl Sadd and Al Duhail after six matches, although they are in thirdposition on goal difference.Baghdad Bounedjah had earlier given Al Sadd a 12th minute lead, takingadvantage of the empty spaces in the penalty area heading home fromclose.Al Rayyan had suffered some of their most humiliating defeats against AlSadd last season, but although they didn’t match the sensationalmargins of victory of the Wolves, it was good enough to ease their painsand put them in a better frame of mind for the matches ahead.The Qatar Football Association had flown in Serbian referee MilodadMazic for the match and the players took full advantage of hisofficiating.Thanks to his liberal outlook – he waived several minor infringementsresulting in a free-flowing game – players were able to expressthemselves fully on the field.Al Rayyan escaped going down by a goal in the very first minute but Bounedjah’s shot was pouched by Omar Barry.A couple of minutes later Pedro Correia’s shot hit the goalpost after taking a deflection, much to Al Rayyan’s relief.But they didn’t have to wait long for the opening goal, Bounedjahfinding himself in perfect position to head home a pass from MusabKamal.Al Rayyan pulled up their socks after that and came close to levelling the scores a couple of times.In the 26th minute, Al Sadd goalkeeper Saad al-Sheeb – who had anexcellent match with several key save – got to the ball a fraction of asecond earlier than Hamdallah to prevent a certain goal.The introduction of Sebastian Soria in the 29th minute added some extraspark to the Al Rayyan forwardline and heightened tensions in the AlSadd camp.The Qatar international was barely on the field for two minutes when hegot a chance to equalise, but his perfectly taken header off a 40-yardfree-kick from Rodrigo Tabata was again saved by al-Sheeb.The Al Sadd goalkeeper was in the thick of the action in the first twominutes of the second half, saving a shot from Hamdallah and beatingSoria to the ball to keep his slate clean.However, Al Rayyan finally got onto the scoresheet in the 55th minutewhen Hamdallah scored from close after the ball was relayed to him viaTabata and Soria.Thereafter Jugurtha Hamroun saw his header deflected by Al Rayyangoalkeeper Barry as Al Sadd missed a golden opportunity. With Xavi andHassan al-Haydous hardly making their presence felt for Al Sadd, AlRayyan marginally looked the better team.And sure enough they got the winner, Korean Koh doing most of the workon the left before scything past the Al Sadd defence and scoring in the71st minute.Earlier, Umm Salal got back to winning ways in the QNB Stars League,thanks to a nervy 1-0 victory over Al Khor at the Al Gharafa Stadium.Needing to start the game well, the home side looked well organisedagainst Laurent Banide’s Al Khor. However, they were largely restrictedto shots from distance in the first half. Danger man Yannick Sagbo wentclose on two occasions, first shooting wide when in on goal and thesecond, a rocket of a shot from long range, was tipped around the post.Immediately after the break, they found a way through the Al Khordefence, thanks to some good attacking play down the left. Left-backRami Shamalah’s cross inside the area found Mohamed El Sayed who firstlooped the ball over the defender before scoring when in on goal at thesecond attempt.Sagbo did have a chance to finish off the game late on as he latchedonto a through ball over the top, but was unlucky to see his volley onthe turn go over the bar.Meanwhile, Al Ahli and Al Arabi played out an entertaining 2-2 draw at the Al Ahli Stadium.Under-23 player Farid Ibrahim (50th minute) and defender Meshaal Mubarak(85th) scored for Al Ahli, while captain Ammar Jamal (21st) and MardekMardikian (64th) were on target for Al Arabi.Al Ahli now have five points and Al Arabi four.