Al Arabi's Pablo Sarabia celebrates after scoring his team's fourth goal.
Doha, Qatar: Al Arabi stormed into the top three of the QSL Cup points table after a dominant 4-0 victory over Al Duhail in their Round 5 fixture yesterday, throwing the race for the lead wide open.
Isaac Lihadji fired Al Arabi ahead with a goal in the third minute before Jordan Veretout doubled the lead in the 40th minute with a brilliant header to put them on a strong position at halftime.
After the break, Alaaeddin Mohammed Hassan added a third in the 67th minute before Pablo Sarabia capped the emphatic win with a clinical strike in the 72nd minute.
Alaaeddin was happy after making his contribution and acknowledged new addition Cosmin Contra who took charge of his first match as the Al Arabi coach.
“Hopefully this is a strong start with the new coach. He has been clear about his expectations, and we will work to implement his ideas. This was only our first match, but we aim to keep improving and perform well throughout the league,” Alaaeddin said.
The victory moved Al Arabi to 10 points from four matches, joining Al Kharaitiyat, Umm Salal and Al Rayyan in a four-way tie at the top. With a strong goal difference of +9, Al Arabi now sit third in the standings, ahead of Al Rayyan and just behind leaders Al Kharaitiyat and Umm Salal who crushed Al Sadd 5-0 to climb to second place.
At the Al Shamal Stadium, Umm Salal dominated the proceedings to secure their third win of the tournament.
Umm Salal led 1-0 at half-time after Antonio Mance opened the scoring in the 38th minute.
Cristo Gonzalez struck in the 48th minute before Jean Quaisi struck twice in the 70th and 82nd minutes.
Ahmed Sayed sealed the rout in stoppage time (90+1).
In another Round 5 match, Qatar SC outclassed Al Ahli 6-1 at Al Khor Stadium.
Qatar SC went 4-0 ahead by half time, thanks to two own goals from Khaled Hassan (2nd and 39th minutes), and clever strikes from Raoul Sanda (14th) and Saeed Brahmi (44th).
Al Ahli pulled one back through a Talal Ali through a spot kick in the 49th minute, but Qatar SC capped their dominance with two more goals, from Joao Pedro in the 75th minute and Yan Matheus in the 88th.
The victory gave Qatar SC, ranked 16th, their first full points of the tournament, while Al Ahli remained on one point at the bottom of the table.
