Msakni hat-trick powers Duhail past Al Ahli

Youssef Msakni scored a spectacular hat-trick as Al Duhail continuedtheir unbeaten run in the QNB Stars League with a 4-0 win over Al Ahliyesterday.The Tunisian captain of Qatar’s leading football club struck in theseventh, 23rd and 77th minutes and Youssef El Arabi added one in the36th as Al Duhail took their tally to 39 points.El Arabi is the top scorer in the tournament with 20 goals, while Msakni is second on 14.Al Duhail dominated from the beginning as play was mostly restricted tothe Al Ahli area. Murad Naji impressed with his darting runs along theright flank as well as precise crosses and corner kicks.Msakni opened the scoring with a long-range shot following a quickreaction and doubled the lead by heading in a corner taken by Naji,giving goalkeeper Yazan Naim no chance.El Arabi made it 3-0 after evading the offside trap and being set up by Msakni.Al Duhail took it a bit easy in the second half, whereas Al Ahli showedmore alacrity. The Brigadiers’ striker Meshaal Abdullah went off thefield injured and was replaced by Majid Mohamed.After Al Duhail’s Ismail Mohamed missed a sitter on the hour mark, AlAhli’s first real chance to score came in the 73rd, but YassineChikhaoui failed to connect. The Tunisian attacking midfielder wasthwarted by rival goalkeeper Amine Lecomte after Msakni had completedhis hat-trick, with Karim Boudiaf doing the spadework.Meanwhile, Al Rayyan recorded a 3-1 victory against struggling side Al Markhiya at the Al Arabi Stadium on Friday.Goals from Sebastian Soria in the 10th minute, Abderrazaq Hamdallah(70th) and Rodrigo Tabata (86th) were enough for The Lions. Al Markhiya’s goal came through Mohamed Salah in the 22nd.Al Rayyan now have 35 points and Al Markhiya stayed on eight. The Lionsthus geared up for the Qatar Clasico against Al Sadd on 8th February. Anedgy opening to the game saw few early chances. However, Al Markhiyawere denied the lead when Salah’s close-range header struck the turfbefore bouncing up and on to the crossbar.A minute later, they were made to pay as Mohsine Moutaouali fedSebastian Soria inside the box for the front man to grab his ninth goalof the season with a left-footed shot across the face of the goal.The home side grew into the game and were able to capitalise midwaythrough the half as Salah tapped in following a defensive mix-up betweenMousa Haroun and goalkeeper Oumar Barry.Early in the second half and Barry was again involved as his spilled catch was pounced on by Saleh who blasted over.Al Rayyan regained the lead through Hamdallah as he beat the offsidetrap to reign in on goal and curl his shot into the far corner. With the victory all but secured, Tabata finished off a fine passing move late on to pile further pressure on the home side.Meanwhile, 10-man Al Arabi secured a very hard-fought point in a 0-0 home draw against Umm Salal.