Al Rayyan's Yohan Boli (second left) celebrates with team-mates after scoring their second goal against Al Wakrah yesterday.
Doha: Former champions Al Rayyan yesterday clinched a dominant 3-0 win over Al Wakrah to jump two spots up in the standings.
At the Suhaim Bin Hamad Stadium, Franck Kom (45+2 minute), Yohan Boli (62nd minute) and Shojae Khalilzadeh (90+4 minute) scored the goals for Al Rayyan, who dominated the proceedings.
With the win, their seventh overall, Al Rayyan moved on to 25 points. It was Al Rayyan’s third successive win under new coach Laurent Blanc.
Al Wakrah remained on 14 points.
After a steady start, Al Rayyan launched their first major threat in the 10th minute. Khalilzadeh jumped high for a snap-header off a corner kick, but the Iranian lost his balance as he bumped into Al Wakrah defender Abdulghani Muneer.
With a little more urgency in their attacks, Ahmed Abdelmaqsoud of Al Rayyan went solo in the 14th minute as he launched a fierce shot from the edge of the box, but Al Wakrah keeper Saoud Al Khater stayed in the right position to block the swinging shot.
Two minutes later, Boli also got into the thick of things as he produced a left-footed drive from the edge of Al Wakrah box, but his shot narrowly missed the goalpost.
In the 32nd minute, Khalilzadeh was beaten by the outstretched hand of Al Khater on an direct free-kick taken from near a corner flag. Al Rayyan’s concerted effort bore fruit in injury time when Kom brought a smile to coach Laurent Blanc’s face.
Abdelaziz Hatem curled in a free-kick that dipped on Kom dived in front – beating his marker Lucas Mendes – to slip the low ball to the left of goalkeeper moments before the end of the first half.
Al Wakrah responded well with a few co-ordinated attacks in the first few minutes of the second half, but the Al Rayyan backline held firm to thwart any danger.
However, Al Rayyan picked up momentum quickly thereafter. Close to the hour mark, Abdelaziz Hatem curled in a beautiful long-range shot from outside the Al Wakrah box, but Al Khater parried the ball above the crossbar.
Two minutes later, Boli made it 2-0 for Al Rayyan. Boli, marked by Mendes on the right and Mohamed Aiash on the left, picked up a long cross from his own half. Mendes tried to clear the dipping ball, but could not. Boli showed great speed to reach the ball first and then tap it above the head of an advancing goalkeeper.
A couple of minutes later, Abdulrahman Mohamed produced a left-footed drive from the edge of the box, but Al Rayyan keeper Fahad Younis dived to his left and parried the ball away.
In the dying seconds of the match, Khalilzadeh headed home from close range sending the ball into an open net after Al Wakrah keeper had stepped out of his own box to block a long-range cross.
Elsewhere, Belgian Edmilson Junior struck for Al Duhail to level the scores after Qatar SC took an early lead through Mehdi Berrahma as the teams shared points at the Suhaim Bin Hamad Stadium.
Berrahma scored from the penalty spot in the 21st minute, and Edmilson tied in the 51st minute. With this result, Al Duhail, placed second in the standings, raised their points tally to 28 while Qatar SC made it 24.
Meanwhile, Umm Salal and Al Arabi also shared points following a goalless draw at Abdullah Bin Khalifa Stadium last night.
With the result, Umm Salal raised their points total to 15 while Al Arabi took their total to 20 points.
