His Excellency Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad Al Thani, President of the Qatar Olympic Committee, crowned Al Duhail as champions of Qatar Cup 2023 after they defeated Al Sadd 2-0 in the final at the Jassim bin Hamad Stadium of Al Sadd club on Thursday, April 6, 2023.

Michael Olunga (48th minute) and Ferjani Sassi (54th minute) were the scorers as Al Duhail won their third Qatar Cup, after 2015 and 2018.

The strongly-contested final between the two top sides produced an exciting start as defending champions Al Sadd made a couple of early attempts at the rival citadel.

But the big moments arrived midway through the opening half, in the 25th minute, when Al Sadd’s Moroccan forward Ayoub El Kaabi made a diving header in front of the goal, but it went over.

The move was realized after Akram Afif passed a great ball to Cazorla on the left, who then provided a curling kick for El Kaabi to go for the header.

A minute later, Al Duhail launched an attack and their midfielder Nam Tae-Hee’s kick went on to powerfully hit the centre of the crossbar and fly over. The South Korean was provided with the pass by Almoez Ali.

Al Duhail missed another chance in the 37th minute when Olunga’s header went just wide of the right post.

The Red Knights returned in the second half all the more charged and produced their first goal after a fast-paced move. Ferjani provided Olunga with a cross from inside the box and the latter’s kick beat a diving goalkeeper Saad Al Dossari to his right.

They doubled their lead soon enough with another thrilling goal. A fine move resulted in Sassi moving the ball toward the right to Almoez, whose kick was blocked by the Al Sadd goalkeeper, but the ball fell to a running-in Sassi who kicked it into the net.

Al Sadd did try hard to make a comeback later, but the strong Al Duhail defence held on. A vain long-range attempt by Afif sailed over towards the end before the final whistle was blown.

Al Sadd have been three-time Qatar Cup champions, having won it in 2017, 2020 and 2021, since the tournament was relaunched under its new name in 2014.

For Al Duhail, this was their second title of the season following their recent Ooredoo Cup triumph.