The battle at the top hotted up after Week 4 action in the 2019-20 QNB Stars League, played on 19th, 20th and 21st September. A total of 19 goals were scored.

Al Arabi stayed on top with 10 points after notching up their third victory, 2-1 against Al Shahania.

Striker Mohammed Salah El Neel contributed a double to Al Arabi’s victory, while Al Shahania’s goal was scored by Ramin Rezaeian.

Al Gharafa, who defeated Al Ahli 3-1 in the highlight fixture of the week, have the same number of points (10) and goal difference (+7) as Al Arabi, but the latter were placed first by virtue of scoring more number of goals. Al Arabi scored 11 goals and conceded four, whereas Al Gharafa scored nine and conceded two.

Al Ahli took the lead through Abdelrahman Moustafa, but Al Gharafa made a brilliant comeback and struck through Sofianne Hanni and Ahmed Alaaeldin, and were also helped by Majed Mohammed’s own goal as The Brigadiers (six points) went down from the fourth position to sixth.

Reigning champions Al Sadd too bounced back from being a goal down to beat Umm Salal 2-1. Strikers Akram Afif and Baghdad Bounedjah were on target for Al Sadd after Umm Salal dealt an early blow through Ivorian striker Yannick Sagbo.

Al Sadd have the advantage of having played a game less. Their Week 3 match against Al Sailiya had been postponed to 24th September due to their AFC Champions League second-leg quarterfinal against Saudi Arabia’s Al Nassr in Doha on 16th September.

Umm Salal thus joined Qatar SC and Al Shahania as the teams not to have registered a win yet.

Qatar SC’s misery compounded as they lost 0-1 to Al Sailiya, Serigne Mbodji netting the all-important goal. The Kings’ weakness of conceding late goals once again did them in. It may be recalled that they were leading against Al Duhail until deep into the game before conceding two late goals to lose the match.

Title contenders Al Duhail faced a stiff resistance before winning 4-2 against Al Wakrah. Mohammed Muntari led the charge with two goals, with Ali Afif and Almoez Ali also chipping in, as The Red Knights jumped from sixth to fourth in the table with eight points.

Mohamed Benyettou found the mark for Al Wakrah, who stayed on six points and slipped from fifth to seventh.

Al Rayyan climbed from eighth to fifth with six points following their first victory. The Lions blanked Al Khor 2-0 with goals from Frank Kom and Abdelaziz Hatem. The Knights slipped from seventh to eighth as they remained on four points.