Al Sadd beat Umm Salal 3-1 in Week 7 of the 2021-2022 season QNB Stars League at the Al Wakrah Stadium on Tuesday.

Umm Salal opened the scoring through Yaseen Bakhit in the sixth minute, but Al Sadd quickly turned things around by scoring almost at will.

Akram Afif (13th minute), Santi Cazorla (29th minute) and Andre Ayew (49th minute) found the net for Al Sadd, the newly-crowned Amir Cup champions.

It was Al Sadd’s seventh successive win this season and they now have 21 points, while Umm Salal stood on five points following their second defeat.

Al Sadd kicked off the proceedings with regular skipper Hassan Al Haydous and ace Algerian striker Baghdad Bounedjah on the bench.

Umm Salal underlined their intentions when Isael Barbosa found Bakhit with a neat cross inside the Al Sadd box. Bakhit dribbled past defender Pedro Miguel and slotted the ball into the net from close range to give his side an early lead.

Three minutes later, Afif aimed at the Umm Salal goal, but his shot from inside the box was blocked by a defender. However, Afif soon found success as he drilled a low shot past Umm Salal keeper Khalifa Aboobacker following an assist by Cazorla.

Three minutes later, Cazorla almost ended up scoring, but his shot from close range hit the outside of the Umm Salal net.

Rodrigo Tabata also remained alert for most of the first half. In the 23rd minute, Tabata beat his marker, but his shot from close range narrowly missed the goalpost to the right of the goalkeeper.

Afif also produced a neat assist for Tabata soon afterwards, but his shot was blocked by the goalkeeper.

A minute before the half-hour mark, a Cazorla-Afif 1-2 saw the Spaniard expertly drill a low shot past the keeper with ease for Al Sadd’s second goal.

Five minutes before the end of half-time whistle, Tabata almost scored, but his shot from close range was blocked by the keeper.

Four minutes into the second half, Al Sadd went 3-1 up when Ayew stretched out with his left foot to drive home from close range.

Close to the hour-mark, Al Sadd’s Ali Asad’s shot was blocked by Umm Salal defender Atef Mohammed after an assist by Afif who was later benched in the 70th minute and replaced by Bounedjah.

In the 86th minute, Umm Salal’s Adel Alawi fired a shot at the Al Sadd goal, but the shot was caught by keeper Meshal Barsham.