Al Ahli beat Al Rayyan 2-1 in an incident-filled match in Week 4 of the 2022-2023 season QNB Stars League at the Ahmed bin Ali Stadium on Tuesday.

In a clash that saw exciting action, a 10-man Al Ahli had the last laugh against a nine-man Al Rayyan.

Yazan Al Naimat (45+1 minute) and Hossein Kanaani (90+3 min penalty) were the scorers for Al Ahli, while Tameem Mansour Al Abdullah (82nd minute) did so for Al Rayyan.

While Al Rayyan’s Saoud Al Hajiri (52nd minute) and Ali Karami (90+1 minute) received red cards, Al Ahli’s Nikola Vukcevic was flashed with the red in the 83rd minute for foul play.

The match had begun on a bright note for Al Rayyan, playing in front of their home fans. As early as the eighth minute, Al Rayyan captain Dame Traori made a tough header looking back, off a fine Tameem Mansour free-kick, but the ball went on to hit the bottom of the left post.

In the 15th minute, Mowafak Awad of Al Rayyan had a good chance, but he kicked over. Two minutes later, Al Rayyan’s dangerous forward Yohan Boli had another good opportunity in front of the goal, but his shot was cut off by an alert Jassem Omer of Al Ahli.

With Al Rayyan juggled to make their moves come together, Al Ahli gathered momentum late in the first half. Their first big chance arrived in the 41st minute, but Al Naimat took long to beat the goalkeeper and an onrushing defender played the foil.

Al Ahli, however, struck minutes later in a superb move inside the box from the right. Playing ‘tiki-taka’ four players combined to break the Al Rayyan defence as Omar made a back flip pass to Sofiane Hanni, who relayed it to Al Naimat to score.

Soon in the second half, Al Rayyan made a raid, but after holding long inside the box they faced a counter-attack. Al Rayyan goalie Saoud Al Hajri rushed out far out of the penalty area to stop Al Naimat, but his challenge was ruled as foul and the referee flashed a yellow. But soon afterwards, the VAR check switched it to red.

The goalkeeper changed for Al Rayyan and they also lost Ibrahim Masoud for the replacement.

The battle continued and in the 72nd minute, Al Ahli’s Hanni got his shot into the goal, but much to his dismay he was ruled offside.

Meanwhile, Steven Nzonzi kept trying hard for Al Rayyan, but twice shot wide of the mark.

By now, the Al Rayyan fans grew restless. However, they were soon provided joy by Tameem Mansour. Latching on to a diving header from Traore, Tameem controlled the ball to send in a rasping drive from top of the box that beat six Al Ahli defenders and the goalkeeper to the left corner of the net (1-1).

But the delight soon turned into disappointment again for Al Rayyan in the final minutes while trying to stop an Al Ahli attack. With Al Naimat shaping to chase the ball from the top of the box and with no defenders inside the ‘D’, he was held back by Ali Karami of Al Rayyan. After a VAR check, the referee ruled a red card against Ali and signalled for the spot kick. Kanaani took the penalty to coolly beat Al Rayyan goalkeeper Abdullah El Rady (2-1).

The win saw Al Ahli gain three more valuable points to take their tally to seven, whereas Al Rayyan suffered their fourth successive loss.