Anderson Martins scored his second goal in the 94th minute to give El Jaish a last-gasp and thrilling 2-1 win over Al Kharaitiyat at the Abdulla bin Khalifa stadium.  More importantly, the win helped them qualify for the Asian Champions League (ACL) play offs.

Before the match Jaish were third in the table, one point ahead of Qatar SC in fourth place and with only the top three teams in the QSL eligible to partake in the ACL it was imperative that the Soldiers ended the season on a win

However El Jaish were coming from a huge 5-2 defeat at the hands of rivals Al Sadd. They were playing Kharaitiyat – a team that had improved leaps and bounds in the second half of the season. In fact the second half of the QSL season had seen the Thunders lose only once, prior to tonight’s match.

To complicate matters, it was Kharaitiyat who scored an early goal through Hasan Abdel‐Fattah in the fifth minute as they took a shock lead. It was the Jordian’s 16^th goal of the season.

Kharaitiyat then sat back and allowed Jaish do all the attacking but frustratingly for the Soldiers, that couldn’t make it count.

The first half ended and Jaish were in danger of missing out on the final champions League qualification spot.

In the second half too, the game was largely played in Kharaitiyat’s half, with the goal that they were searching for remaining very much elusive. 

In the 79^th minute Martins scored his first goal of the match to give Jaish a glimmer of hope. After that, Jaish were relentless but were wasting a lot of chances. Then finally when it seemed that they would have to be satisfied with a draw, skipper Martins produced a goal with literally the last shot of the match. 

Jaish had 18 attempts at goal out of which six were on target. But it was the two that they converted that made all the difference.

An exhilarating result for Jaish and they will have something to cheer for, in what has been a disappointing season by their high standards.

Kharaitiyat meanwhile won’t be too disappointed with the loss. They produced on a strong showing in the second half of the season and from being threatened with relegation, the boys in blue have managed to finish ninth in the table.