Al Shamal and Al Wakrah drew 1-1 in Round 5, Group B of the 2024-2025 season QSL Cup at the Al Khor Stadium on Monday, November 11, 2024.

Mohammed Omar’s 84th-minute equaliser, after Farid Boulaya scored for Al Wakrah in the 69th minute, denied The Blue Wave an outright win as they ended the group phase as leaders with 10 points, while Al Shamal finished third with six points from four matches.

The match was for the better part of the earlier minutes tepid as no major action was recorded, with both sides seemingly weighing each other.

Al Wakrah began to assert their dominance as the match wore on, but for all their efforts, they were frustrated by the heroics of goalkeeper Oumar Barry, who stood like an impenetrable wall for Al Shamal.

Al Shamal too had a couple of chances which they, however, failed to capitalise on with a 24th minute miss by Mouwafak Awad, who headed wide from a very viable position, being one of the major highlights of their lost opportunities.

The situation remained the same, with none of the sides taking the initiative to bell the cat going into the half-time break.

Al Wakrah continued from where they stopped in the second half, with their attacking midfielder Boulaya remaining a thorn in the flesh of Al Shamal’s defence with his darting moves and positional play, which posed a lot of challenges for them.

Mohamed Al Mannai missed a golden opportunity of changing the fortune of the game for Al Shamal in the 67th minute when his shot narrowly hit the crossbar on its way out after being set up with a fine-headed pass by Awad.

Al Shamal’s loss turned to be Al Wakrah’s gain as Boulaya finally ended the deadlock in the 69th minute after taking advantage of a defensive error between goalkeeper Barry and his defensive line-up to fire home a low, but powerful shot as they took the lead.

A relentless effort from Al Shamal was finally rewarded in the 84th minute, with Mohammed Omar grabbing the equaliser for his side to deny group leaders Al Wakrah the maximum points.