Twice former champions Al Sadd brought the big spark to their 2023-2024 AFC Champions League campaign as they thrashed debutants Al Faisaly of Jordan 6-0 in the third round (Group B) at the Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium of Al Sadd club on Monday.

Al Sadd’s star striker Baghdad Bounedjah scored a hat-trick to dazzle on home turf in front of a boisterous crowd. The Wolves had led 1-0 at half-time before returning to the field only to run roughshod over a hapless opposition.

Making matters worse for Al Faisaly was they being reduced to 10 men in the 44th minute after Nizar Al Rashdan was flashed with a second yellow card following a bad foul.

His first infringement had come in the 31st minute when he fouled Mohammed Waad and, 13 minutes later, a clumsy attempt to stop Bounedjah from advancing through the centre saw referee Khaled Al Teris hand out another yellow card that sent Al Rashdan to the dressing room.

Bounedjah (eighth, 50th and 64th minutes), Gonzalo Plata (51st minute), Moustafa Tareq (52nd minute) and Yusuf Abdurisag (83rd minute) were the scorers for Al Sadd.

The win took Al Sadd’s tally to four points from three games.

Al Sadd began the match at a furious pace and almost maintained the run throughout. They launched themselves into attack straight away, but a Hassan Al Haydous strike flew high. But it was not long before the tall Bounedjah headed the opening goal with a low header off a Mohammed Waad cross into the bottom right of the net.

Al Faisaly then tightened up in defence, but they could not hold it for long against the rampaging rivals. In the 15th minute, an Ehsan Haddad shot was well saved by Al Sadd goalkeeper Meshaal Barsham.

In the 40st minute, Bounedjah scored with a header, but was ruled offside.

Al Sadd hit back with more intensity in the second session as Bounedjah scored again. It was a fine combination of Asad, Mohammed Waad and Bounedjah almost toying around the defence before the Algerian scored from the centre (2-0).

Moments later, Al Sadd were back to scoring as Gonzalo Plata picked on the ball and broke through solo to strike leaving the opposite goalkeeper Noureddin Zaid shocked (3-0).

Another goal followed within a minute and this time it was Moustafa who picked on Plata’s cross to gleefully score (4-0).

This was followed by Bounedjah’s hat-trick goal who drove in from the centre of the box after being assisted with a defence-splitting pass by Ali Asad (5-0).

Meshaal later hit the crossbar as Al Sadd refused to show Al Faisaly any mercy.

Abdurisag added the sixth seven minutes from time as he slipped his close-range shot through the legs of goalkeeper Noureddin Zaid to complete the rout.