Al Rayyan players and officials celebrate with the Sheikh Jassim Cup Trophy after defeating Al Duhail at the Al Sadd Stadium yesterday. Pictures: Abdul Basit / The Peninsula
Doha: Al Rayyan edged Al Duhail in the penalty shoot-out to win the Sheikh Jassim Cup at Al Sadd Stadium here yesterday.
The win turned out to be a sweet revenge for the Lions who lost to the QNB Stars League (QSL) holders Al Duhail in the Amir Cup final last May.
The final of the one-off match tournament saw the teams shared a goal apiece at the end of regular period of play.
The penalty shoot-out turned out to be a big challenge for the substitutes with Al Rayyan players standing up to the task.
Al Rayyan’s new recruit and seasoned campaigner Khalfan Ibrahim along with Ahmed Mohamed Ali found the net while Al Duhail’s Mohammed Muntari failed to beat the Al Rayyan keeper with the fourth kick and in the end Muntari’s miss proved decisive as Mohammed Ali converted to give coach Rodolfo Martin Arruabarrena his first trophy of the season.
For Al Rayyan, Rodrigo Tabata, Myongin Koh and Sebastain Soira were the other scorers, while Yousef El-Arabi, Nam Tae-hee and Mohamed Moosa Ali, scored for the Al Rayyan.
Duhail thus finished on the losing side for the second successive year. Last year they lost 4-2 to Al Sadd.
The tournament usually pits QSL and Emir Cup champions, but since Duhail had won both, the Emir Cup runners-up was chosen to play in the season’s first competition.
Both the teams took time to settle down and played at a subdued place but shifted gears as the match progressed.
Al Duhail playing under a new coach Nabil Maaloul could not recreate the same level of fluency which was part of their game last season.
The Tunisian coach, who had guided his national team at the FIFA World Cup in Russia last month, tried a few combination ahead of the new season with challenging QNB Stars League season in mind.
Yesterday, Al Duhail missed out on the services of Youssef Msakni who suffered a serious knee ligament injury towards the end of last season which also kept him away from last month’s World Cup for Tunisia.
The QNB Stars League (QSL) winners suffered another body blow very early into the match when their reliable player Karim Boudiaf had to carried off the field due to a knee in the third minute of the match.
Boudiaf leapt high to clear an aerial ball and hurt his knee as he fell on the turf.
Al Duhail thus was forced to make an early substitution with Luiz Martin Junior taking over from Boudiaf.
Al Rayyan on the other hand pressed for an early advantage and were the first one to test the Al Duhail as early in the seventh minute of the match.
Captain Tabata who was entrusted with the free kick curled it over the Al Duhail defensive wall but found Al Duhail’s keeper Lecoumet Kloud Amin diving to his right to deflect the ball for a flag kick.
Thereafter both teams tried to break open the defense with varied combinations but without any success.
Al Duhail struck much against the run of play in the 23 minute of play through Ismail Mohammed.
Ismail, with his back facing the goal, received a square pass on the top of box, beat his marker with a swift body feint and unleashed a right foot drive which beat Al Rayyan keeper Oumar Barry with his elegant drive.
Thereafter, bot the teams tried to break open the defense but without any success.
In the second half, Al Rayyan stepped up the pace to get the equaliser and tasted success after a quarter into the second half.
Abdulrahman Mohammed Al Harazi came close to giving the much needed equaliser for Al Rayyan in the 59th minute. Al Harazi’s was unsuccessful in his first attempt as it swung far of the post but a minute later he was on target finishing off a move started from the left flank.
Al Rayyan nearly took the lead in the 76th minute but Soira’s angular drive from the top of the box flew inches over the cross bar.
During the injury time, Al Duhail almost got the match winner as Murad Naji’s thunderbolt went astonishingly close to the target.
