Al Duhail rallied to beat Al Sailiya 3-1 in Week 18 of the 2022-2023 season QNB Stars League at the Al Ahli Stadium on Saturday.

League leaders Al Duhail bounced back after trailing by a goal till half-time.

While Al Sailiya went up the lead through a penalty strike taken by Carlos Strandberg in the 28th minute, The Red Knights came out firing on all cylinders in the second half as Ferjani Sassi (57th minute), Michael Olunga (72nd minute) and Almoez Ali (90+8 minute) scored.

The win took Al Duhail’s tally to 42 points from 17 matches, while Al Sailiya remained in the 12th place with nine points from 18 games.

It was a strong challenge by Al Sailiya though who benefitted from a foul when Ahmad Sebaie was brought down by Al Duhail’s Ismail Mohammed just inside the penalty area down left.

Having taken the lead, Al Sailiya kept making moves and Al Duhail had to be on their toes to defend their citadel.

In the second half, however, Al Duhail – who recently lifted the Ooredoo Cup – were a team possessed as Sassi picked on a long ball from Khaled Mohammed to effect a perfect header with a smooth finish into the left of the net.

It was not long before Al Duhail opened up spaces and Olunga crossed over a defender inside the ‘D’ to score off a superb assist from the right by substitute Almoez Ali.

Al Duhail were all smiles once again towards the end when Olunga put through a fine pass for Almoez to beat an onrushing goalkeeper for his team’s third and final goal in the final seconds of injury time.