Last season’s champions Lekhwiya had to win their round 10 clash in order to go ahead of Al Sadd in the standings, but they allowed Al Arabi to bounce back and secure a 3-3 draw. Now the Red Knights find themselves trailing the Wolves by three points after 10 matches.

Chico Flores headed Lekhwiya into the lead off a Nam Tae-Hee corner in the 14th minute, but their joy lasted just six minutes as Al Arabi restored parity through Paulinho. The Brazilian talisman got himself on the score sheet with a leaping header off a corner from Syed Ashkan Mohamed.

Lekhwiya took the lead for the second time in the match, courtesy of a strike from South Korean Nam Tae-Hee. The forward profited from a deft pass by striker Sebastian Soria in the 30^th minute.

The match dragged on after that before springing back to life towards the final stages, especially after Nam struck his second goal, thanks again to a Soria pass in the 80th minute.

However complacency was to cost Lekhwiya all three points come the end of the game. First they conceded a naïve a free-kick in the 83rd minute, which Paulinho duly blasted into the net from just outside the penalty area.

Then just one minute later, the pony-tailed striker beat the defence to reach a careless back pass and thereby register his first hat-trick in the QSL.

There was no question that Lekhwiya dominated the match, but they took their foot off the gas, especially in the last 10 minutes and this undid all of their good work.

The result means Al Arabi stop sliding down the table and are now in 8^th place whilst Lekhwiya remains in second place but have let a three point gap occur as Sadd pull away from the chasing pack!