Al Gharafa’s Dutch star Wesley Sneijder reacts during the Friendly Football Tournament in Oman. Sneijder scored three goals in two matches to become the top scorer in the tournament which saw four teams competing.
DOHA: Al Gharafa’s Dutch star Wesley Sneijder was crowned the top scorer in the friendly tournament in Oman which concluded on Thursday night.
Sneijder scored three goals in two matches, including a brilliant brace against Oman’s Al Nasr in the Qatari team’s 2-0 win on Sunday.
On Wednesday, Al Gharafa lost to Tunisia’s CS Sfaxien 3-1 in the final. Once again, Sneijder was on target, scoring their only goal but it was not enough to prevent SC Sfaxien, one of the top African teams, from winning.
Al Gharafa started the match with Qassem Burhan, Osman El-Elihri, El-Mahdi Ali, Diego Amado, Youssef Muftah, Amr Sirag, Abdel-Aziz Hatem, Khaled Abdel Rauf, Wesley Sneijder, Ahmed Ala and Mehdi Tarmi.
Al Gharafa’s French coach Christian Gourcuff rested Vladimir Weiss, Youssef Hassan and Saeed Al Haj due to slight niggles.
In the first half, they produced a number of attacks and came close to scoring on several occasions. Al Gharafa’s best chance at scoring was in the 41st minute Mahdi Tarmi missed an easy chance.
In the second half, the coach Gourcuff made several changes as he played Monkaz Uday, Mohammed Ismail and Tamim Muhaysa instead of Amr Abdul Siraj, Mahdi Ali and Ahmad Ola.
After numerous attacking moves, Sneijder produced his third goal of the tournament in the second half to make it 3-1.
Egypt’s FC Ismaily was the fourth team in the tournament in which Al Gharafa took part to test their fitness status ahead of the new season.
With the conclusion of the event, the Qatari club ended their offshore pre-season training ahead of the new QNB Stars League season (QSL) which kicks off on August 4.
Al Gharafa, a former QSL title hoder, finished the previous League on fourth position. The Cheetahs are hoping for better results this season and they underwent rigorous training in Europe before reaching Oman for the final stage of their preparations for the new season.
Al Gharafa returned to Doha yesterday and will resume their preparations for the new season.
Al Gharafa will take on Qatar SC at the Khalifa International Stadium in the opening match of the new QSL season. The match will kick off at 5.35 pm.
Elsewhere, on Wednesday, Al Rayyan beat Czech side SC Znojmo 2-0 in a pre-season friendly.
Coached by Argentinian Rodolfo Arruabarrena, Al Rayyan were guided by Rodrigo Tabata (58) and Muwafaq (78).
It was the final friendly for the Qatar football giants during their pre-season training camp in Europe.
Al Rayyan played the match with Omar Barifi, Mohamed Gomaa, Gonzalo Viera, Moussa Haroun, Mohamed Alaa, Abdul Rahman Al Karbi, Daniel Gomo, Kyo Myong-jin, Ahmed Al Saadi, Rodrigo Tabata and Sebastian Soria.
Al Rayyan will take on Al Duhail in the Sheikh Jassim Cup on August 1.
Al Rayyan, who finished third in the previous season, will take on Al Ahli to kick off this season’s title hunt on August 5.
