Al Ahli maintained their unbeaten run in the new QNB Stars League season when they blanked Al Sailiya 2-0 while Al Gharafa followed in similar manner against Al Kharaitiyat yesterday in their respective Round 4 matches.
It was Al Ahli's fourth consecutive win.
At the Al Arabi Stadium yesterday, Hernan Perez (second minute) and Abdulrasheed Umaru (57th minute) scored for Al Ahli, who raised their points tally to 12 as they became the only team to win all of their matches in this season's QSL so far.
Al Sailiya stood on four points from as many games.
Al Ahli’s earlier wins were against Al Wakrah (2-1), Al Arabi (2-0) and Al Khor (1-0) in that order. Perez was the architect of The Brigadiers’ brilliant show as provided assistance for Umaru’s goal as well.
Al Ahli opened the scoring so early in the game and Al Sailiya in fact never recovered from the shock. Nothing went The Peregrines’ way as the reinforced squad this season, consisting of new recruits Tiago Bezerra, Mohanad Ali and Ahmed Hammoudan, struggled to find a footing. Perez scored as he pounced on a minus pass by Al Sailiya captain Majdi Siddiq to team-mate Ghanem Al Qahtani, who failed to receive the ball before the Paraguayan took control and placed it in past goalkeeper Amine Lecomte.
Changing ends, Tiago sent a free-kick wide before Umaru found the target, with Perez providing him with a cross from the right. Al Ahli’s Hazem Shehata made two serious attempts at the goal, but failed to score on both occasions.
Elsewhere, at Al Gharafa Stadium, Koo Ja-Cheol (67) and Jonathan Kodjia (85) sealed the victory for the hosts. With this result, Al Gharafa raised their points tally to 9 while Al Kharaitiyat remained at three points.
Today, Al Arabi will host Umm Salal in the day's first kick-off. Al Rayyan face Al Wakrah at Al Gharafa Stadium in the final match of the round.
