Al Duhail's Eduardo Rodriguez vying for the ball with Umm Salal players during their QNB Stars League Round 12 match played at Qatar SC Stadium, yesterday.
Doha: Al Duhail yesterday overtook Al Gharafa in the QNB Stars League points table thanks to a hard-fought win over Umm Salal at the Qatar SC Stadium.
Eduardo Rodriguez scored the only goal of the match in the 12th minute as Al Duhail raised their points tally to 24 as they climbed to the second spot with their eighth win of the season.
Umm Salal remain on 10 points following their sixth defeat.
Going into the match, Umm Salal had not lost their last four games. However, they could not do much against reigning champions Al Duhail, who are in their usual selves of late after initial struggles.
Al Duhail had stormed into the top four by beating Al Khor (6-1) in Week 10 and The Red Knights then beat Al Ahli 5-3 to finish the first leg of the tournament in third position.
Sabri Lamouchi’s side is well on course to retain the title even though they lag behind leaders Al Sadd on points.
Dudu scored the winner in the 12th minute and the stalemate remained right throughout.
Al Duhail dominated the ball with 65 per cent in the first half. Abdullah Al Ahrak set up Almoez Ali in the 39th minute, but the latter could not find the target.
For Umm Salal, Kayke Rodriguez and Abdennour Belhosini made serious attempts in the first half.
Both teams continued to create chances in the second session, but the deadlock remained.
Meanwhile, Al Gharafa, failed to secure their second spot despite a second-half fightback against Qatar SC as they shared points with Qatar SC following a 2-2 draw at the Qatar SC Stadium yesterday.
Ahmed Fadel (41) and Youcef Belaili (45+2 penalty) were on target for Qatar SC, while Al Gharafa replied through goals from Ahmed Al Janehi (54) and Jonathan Kodjia (59 penalty).
Al Gharafa now stands in the third spot, one point behind Al Duhail, while Qatar SC have 20 in front of their name.
The match kicked off in spectacular fashion with Belaili aiming for the goal on the second touch a couple of feet away from the half-line. His long-range shot was not way off the mark as the ball sailed above keeper Yousef Hassan’s head and landed on top of the net.
As the players settled into a groove, Al Gharafa’s Koo Ja-Cheol attempted a long-range shot in the 13th minute, close to the edge of the box, that went wayward.
Belaili’s second serious attempt at goal – this time from close range – was made possible by a long cross from Hamed Ismail. Chased by an Al Gharafa defender, Belaili charged into the box but his header – lacking in speed – was parried away by the goalkeeper in the 18th minute.
Al Gharafa’s influential Algerian midfielder Sofiane Hanni – after a short cross from Homam Elamin – also failed to find the net as he hit the ball straight to keeper Jassim Al Hail despite having time and space to work on his shot close to the half hour mark.
The long session of hits and misses came to end – via a VAR call in the 43rd minute - when Fadel on an assist by Alejandro Galvez fired into the lower right of the Al Gharafa goal. The referee used the VAR review to check the potential off-side call before allowing the goal to stay.
In injury time, Al Gharafa’s Tameem Al Muhaza brought Belaili down with a rough sliding tackle resulting in a penalty. Qatar SC went 2-0 up as Belaili easily converted the spot kick.
Trailing by two goals, Al Gharafa hit back with two quick goals in the second half.
First, Al Janehi jumped high to tap a cross into the net from close range.
Then, Kodjia converted a penalty kick awarded after he was brought down inside the box and the referee awarded the penalty after a VAR review.
A quarter of an hour later, Kodjia nearly scored a winner from close range on a long cross from Hanni. However, Kodjia’s quick-footed drive was pouched by Qatar SC keeper.
Elsewhere, at Al Arabi Stadium, the hosts beat Al Khor 3-0.
Mehrdad Mohammadi (18), Mehdi Torabi (38) and Abdulrahman Anad (71) scored the goals as Al Arabi completed a hat-trick of wins. The Dream Team now have four victories and 15 points.
Al Khor’s miseries compounded as they crashed to their seventh defeat and stood on seven points, very much in the danger zone, as the tournament entered the second leg.
Al Khor now have their back to the wall as The Knights have only one point more than bottom-placed Al Kharaitiyat.
