Dala brace takes Wakrah to second as Sadd lose again

Al Wakrah moved within a point of leaders Al Arabi after they inflicted yet another defeat on reigning champions Al Sadd in the QNB Stars League on Wednesday. The league now takes a break for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, which will be held from November 20 to December 18.At the Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium, Gelson Dala was the star of the show as the Angolan forward scored a brace to take his team to 16 points, one less than Arabi and one more than third-placed Al Duhail. Dala opened the scoring in the 73rd minute but Sadd equalised through former Arsenal star Santi Cazorla, who converted a penalty in the 86th minute. Dala, however, struck again two minutes later to break Sadd’s hearts with the champions now having lost four matches and tottering at ninth spot. Sadd, who are nine points behind Arabi, will welcome back their Qatar internationals when the league resumes after the World Cup. In another game, Al Rayyan slumped to sixth defeat in seven games as they went down to Qatar SC 0-1 at the Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Stadium. Sebastian Soria’s 86th minute strike turned out to be the winner for Qatar SC, who move to seventh placed. Rayyan are bottom with one point, having not tasted a victory this season.Earlier, Al Ahli staged a strong fightback to hold Al Shamal 2-2. This was Al Ahli’s fourth draw and they took their tally to 10 points and are fifth going into the league’s long break. Shamal, also with 10 points, are one spot below Ahli. Shamal led 2-0 at half-time, with Mohsen al-Yazidi (sixth minute) and Yacine Bammou (ninth minute) striking early. For Ahli, Hossein Kanaani (59th minute penalty) and Yazan al-Naimat (89th minute) scored.While Shamal appeared to be in a strong position taking the early two-goal lead, Ahli kept working their way for long before their moves could materialize. One such moment was when Matias Nani pushed back al-Naimat when inside the box and the referee, after a VAR check, signalled to the spot.Kanaani made no mistake with the kick and Ahli now surely looked to fight back harder. Their efforts were rewarded as al-Naimat picked on a long volley to shoot a rasping shot which found the net despite a little deflection from Fahad Waad al-Bayati’s boot.Al-Naimat was also easily one of the most hard-working of players on the day for Ahli. The added time saw some anxious moments with both sides trying hard and when Shamal’s substitute Majed Mohamed fell inside the box during a tussle for the ball with Abdulrasheed Ibrahim, also a sub, fears of a penalty were raised, but the referee ruled otherwise.Earlier, the match had begun with a double setback for Ahli as al-Yazidi and Bammou dealt blows in quick succession and in fine style. The first goal’s making emerged from an Ahli corner kick and with the ball being kicked away, al-Yazidi collected a good pass from near the centre line to go all the way into the box and score.Minutes later, Shamal again worked from the right, with Ali Olwan dribbling past two defenders to provide Bammou with the pass. And Bammou was quick to perfectly deflect it into the goal.