Al Rayyan regained their winning touch by handing Umm Salal a 2-0 defeat in an eventful Week 6 encounter of the 2023-2024 season Expo Stars League at the Thani Bin Jassim Stadium of Al Gharafa club on Saturday.

Al Rayyan had, however, missed a penalty kick, soon after Umm Salal’s Moroccan defender Marouane Louadni was shown the red card for a foul inside the danger area in the 66th minute of the match.

After a goalless opening half, Thiago Mendes (52nd minute) and Achraf Bencharki (74th minute) got the goals for Al Rayyan, who bounced back after their previous-round loss to Al Wakrah.

The win took The Lions to the top of the table with 15 points with five wins and ahead of Al Sadd (13 points). Umm Salal remained on eight points.

The match saw plenty of drama midway through when following some thick action, Louadni elbowed and pushed Al Rayyan’s Brazilian forward Roger Guedes in front of the goal. The game continued for a bit before the referee took a long and hard VAR look at the incident and declared a penalty. Louadni was also given the marching orders.

Rodrigo Moreno stepped up to take the spot kick but in his first attempt he lost footing and slipped kicking the ball over. The referee asked for the kick to be taken again, but this time Umm Salal’s Senegalese goalkeeper Landing Badji made a save, denying Al Rayyan the goal.

Earlier, Mendes had provided The Lions with the lead, striking from just outside the box off a Rodrigo assist.

After the penalty miss, Al Rayyan attacked again and almost scored a goal as an unmarked Bencharki deflected a fast cross from Bassam Al Rawi from the centre of the box into the high centre of the goal.

Al Rayyan then had a few more close moments in front of the rival goal, but custodian Badji cut the threats off.

Umm Salal rued their chances, mainly the one in 23rd minute of the game when Kenji Gorre’s strike hit the crossbar from the top of the box. He was assisted by Adel Al Sulaimane.

Al Rayyan too missed many chances including the one in the 37th minute when Gabriel Pereira’s header went high. Later in the 80th minute, Andre Amaro’s header from the centre of the box hit the bar.