Al Duhail players and officials celebrate their win over Al Sadd in the Qatar Cup final at Al Sadd Stadium in Doha yesterday. Pic:Baher Amin/The Peninsula
Doha: An injury time penalty goal from Yousef Alarabi helped QNB Stars League (QSL) winners Al Duhail edge Al Sadd 2-1 in a thrilling and action packed final of the Qatar Cup.
Playing at Al Sadd Stadium, Al Duhail struck in the tenth minute of the injury time through a spot kick.
Alarabi who was entrusted with the kick sent the ball past the Al Sadd keeper in the last kick of the match to give them the coveted trophy, the second one of the season.
Al Duhail got the spot kick awarded through a Video Assistant referee (VAR). Referee Abdulla Ali Athba referred a decision to the VAR as Al Duhail claimed a spot kick.
The VAR awarded the decision in favour of Al Duhail with the field referee pointing to the spot kick, a decision which evoke protests from the Al Sadd coach and players.
Finally after much drama on and off the field, Alarabi kept his cool to send the Al Sadd goalkeeper Saad Abdulla Al Dosari the wrong way with his spot kick conversion.
The defending champions went into the half time break with a 1-0 lead, having scored in the 29th minute through Hassan Al Haydos.
Al Duhail bounced back to draw level in the 78th minute from Ismail Mohamad Mohamad.
Alarabi gave full credit to his team-mates for the team.
“It is all team work. Full credit to my team-mates. We did not give up when we were down, we knew and we were confident that we could score and in the end we did,” said Alarabi.
Al Duhail goalkeeper Lecoumet Kloud Amin said the fighting spirit fetched them the victory.
“We did not give up, we were down by a goal, we fought back. And finally in the end Al Arabi scored a decisive goal, he finished the match with his strike,” Amin said.
Both the teams adopted a cautious approach in the starting few minutes and gradually picked up the pace as a full house settled down to watch some high quality football dished by the two teams.
Al Sadd were keen on focusing on the task at hand instead of looking back at past records as they had lost to the QSL winners Al Duhail twice in the league competition. Coach Jesualdo Ferreira’s, which finished second in the QSL, were looking to avenge their twin QSL losses to Djamel Belmadi’s side in the title clash and retain the Cup they won last year.
Both the teams had their share of chances but could not trouble the scorers until coach Ferreira’s team struck on the goal front.
The Wolves took the lead through a dead ball situation. Baghdad Bounedjah back header caught the Al Duhail defense on the wrong foot with Haydos, who lay in wait at the far post, guiding the ball past a rival defender and goalkeeper Amin to put his team ahead.
Thereafter, Al Duhail pressed hard for the equaliser in the last quarter of the first half but without any success as the Al Sadd defense stood their ground to repulse the attacks.
In the second half, both the teams playing attacking brand of football. Al Sadd were not contend in just hanging on to the one goal lead but came up with a few attacks but could not add to the goals tally.
Al Duhail finally were able to draw level with a strike from Ismail Mohamad Mohamad in the 78th minute. The midfielder took control of a loose ball to slot home his left footed placement past a diving Al Sadd goalkeeper.
Goaded by a goal, Al Duhail almost took the lead but Nam Tae-Hee angular drive missed the target by a whisker.
Al Sadd which picked up two domestic titles last season were aiming to add more titles having won the season-opening Sheikh Jassim Cup, but that was not to be as the late penalty shattered their dreams.
Ferreira’s team defeated Al Rayyan 6-4 in the penalty shoot to make it to the title clash, after both the teams shared two goals apiece at the end of regular period of play.
On the other hand, Al Duhail coasted to an easy 6-1 win over Al Gharafa, with all the goals coming in the second half.
