Al Duhail prevailed over Al Gharafa 2-0 in Round 3 (Group B) of the 2023-2024 season Ooredoo Cup at the Suhaim Bin Hamad Stadium of Qatar Sports Club on Saturday.

This was a second successive win for the defending champions, who took their tally to six points. The Red Knights were not in action in the second round.

Al Markhiya, Al Rayyan and Al Shamal are the other teams in Group B.

Substitute Ismail Mohammed (65th minute) and Philipe Coutinho (90+7 minute-penalty) got the goals for Al Duhail.

The Cheetahs were however unlucky as they had several close chances to equalize and even had a penalty denied after a VAR check in the 29th minute.

While Al Gharafa launched many of their attacks in both sessions of play, the goal remained elusive. On one occasion - in the 86th minute, their Ivory Coast forward Yohan Boli’s kick went on to hit low of the right goal post.

There was more frustration in the fourth minute of stoppage time for Al Gharafa when a fine Yacine Brahimi free-kick found no takers in time in front of the goal.

The attacking Algerian was a livewire for The Cheetahs. Earlier in the 61st minute, he beat past defenders just outside the box to set up unmarked Ahmed Al Ganehi with a great ball, but the latter’s shot from the centre was punched away by a jumping Al Duhail goalkeeper Shehab Ellethy.

In the 83rd minute, a Brahimi free-kick resulted in big action in front of the goal and a header was superbly intercepted by Ellethy, but the ball bounced out and the goalkeeper had to dive to keep it out of the goal with the fingers of his outstretched hand.

Midway through the first half, Brahimi dashed in from the left, breaking past two defenders, but a rushing Ruben Semedo of Al Duhail succeeded in stopping him. The referee called for a penalty, but soon reverted it following a VAR review.

In contrast, Al Duhail raided the rival den time and again, but kept missing the target.

In the 57th minute, Ismail did get the ball into the net, but he was clearly offside.

The Red Knights eventually broke the deadlock minutes later when Coutinho sent across the ball to Ismail to score with ease.

The dying moments saw Suhaib Gannan run with the ball into the penalty area and a rushing-out Al Gharafa goalkeeper Khalifa Ababacar slided through and Gannan fell.

Coutinho stepped up to take the spot kick and made it 2-0.