Al Sadd, Al Duhail neck and neck in title race

The QNB Stars League’s Week 4 witnessed 25 goals being scored and as many as four high-scoring matches. Al Sadd remained on top ahead of Al Duhail on goal difference as both teams were tied on 10 points following their victories over Al Shahania (4-0) and Qatar SC (3-2) respectively.While Al Sadd had it easy, scoring all their goals in the first half against the promoted team, Al Duhail struggled against a fighting Qatar SC who surged ahead by two goals at half-time. The Red Knights then staged a brilliant comeback to emerge as victorious. Al Sadd have a goal difference of +19 compared to Al Duhail’s +10.Al Sadd and Al Duhail thus continued their good form that also saw them defeat Iranian sides Esteghlal and Persepolis respectively in the AFC Champions League’s first-leg quarter-finals. Al Sadd’s Algerian striker Baghdad Bounedjah continued to be the QNB Stars League’s top scorer with 11 goals, while teammate Akram Afif increased his tally to six following his brace against Al Shahania. Boualem Khoukhi was The Wolves’ other scorer. Despite the setbacks, Al Shahania and Qatar SC stayed at eighth and ninth position respectively.  Al Sadd head coach Jesualdo Ferreira praised his side after win over Shahania. “We played well and got what we wanted – three points. We returned from Iran with fatigue and this affected the players in the second half. As I said earlier, the team hasn’t reached its full strength since the start of the season,” he said. “We finished the game off in the first half. I really liked the first 20 minutes, especially the team work which was excellent. After the third goal, the players didn’t exhaust themselves. I could notice the players’ fatigue in the second half and I excuse them for that. Despite this, we created many chances to try and increase the score, which is a really good thing. My team loves to score goals. Fatigue affected us or we could have scored 8 goals,” the Portuguese manager added. Meanwhile, Duhail coach Nabil Maaloul was relieved and happy after his players showed enough character to stage a comeback win over Qatar SC. “The match was difficult as I expected and as I told the players. Qatar SC striker Hussein Ali was a constant threat during the match and we committed lots of obvious mistakes. In the second half, we were able to put in a good performance and I am very happy that we were able to win the match,” Maaloul said.Al Sailiya stayed third with a 2-1 victory over Al Khor, with Abdulqadir Ilyas yet again coming to The Peregrines’ rescue with a two-goal effort. The striker had struck a brace in their opening-week defeat of Umm Salal as well. Al Khor remained on one point in 11th place.The real shocker of the week was provided by Al Arabi as they put it across Umm Salal 5-1 to stay in the fourth spot with nine points, behind Al Sailiya on goal difference. Al Rayyan remained fifth in the table with eight points after they piled on the misery of Al Kharaitiyat with a 2-1 victory.Al Kharaitiyat were under new coach Abdelaziz El Amri from Morocco who replaced Nassif al-Bayawi. However, they could not make a turnaround in their fortunes and remained at the bottom as the only team yet to collect a point.The week’s much-awaited encounter between Al Ahli and Al Gharafa turned out to be a one-sided one, with the latter running out as 4-0 winners. In the process, The Cheetahs climbed one position to sixth as Umm Salal slipped to seventh. Al Ahli stood at 10th.