Al Duhail scored an exciting 2-1 victory over Al Shamal in Week 7 of the 2023-2024 season Expo Stars League at the Al Bayt Stadium on Saturday.

All three goals came in the second half, courtesy of Yousef Ayman (63rd minute) and Almoez Ali (76th minute) for Al Duhail, while Ricardo Gomes scored a 90th-minute penalty for Al Shamal.

With the result, Al Duhail increased their tally to 13 points, while Al Shamal remained on three points from three draws.

The first attempt of the night fell to Al Shamal’s Gomes, but his right-footed shot from a difficult angle on the right, following an assist by Mahdi Salem, got blocked in the ninth minute.

Al Duhail’s Sultan Al Braik tried a through ball that was destined for Almoez’s leg in the 35th minute, but the Qatar international was flagged offside for what could have been the opening goal.

Four minutes later, Almoez got a sublime pass across the way of Michael Olunga, but the Kenyan striker was also caught offside.

Gomes got his right-footed shot from the left side of the box blocked in the 43rd minute, again following an assist by Salem.

With opportunities far and few between on both sides, the match remained a goalless stalemate at half-time.

After a series of near misses, Al Duhail finally broke the deadlock a little after the hour mark with defender Ayman’s thumping header from the left side of the six-yard box, following Almoez’s cross from a corner kick, finding the top right-hand corner of Al Shamal goalkeeper Abdullah El Rady’s goal.

Almoez made it two in the 76th minute by firing home a left-footed shot from the centre of the box straight down the centre of the goal.

Al Shamal got a foot back in the game in stoppage time following the retake of a penalty kick by Gomes after his first attempt was saved by goalkeeper Zakaria and the follow-ups were equally missed by the Al Shamal players.

However, goalkeeper Zakaria was adjudged to have got off his line before the first kick, allowing Gomes another chance to redeem himself, which he did not waste this time around. The initial foul for the penalty was conceded by Mohammed Muntari, who was ruled by VAR to have brought down Salem in the penalty area in the 84th minute.

Much as Al Shamal tried to restore parity in the dying minutes of injury time, Al Duhail remained resolute as they obtained the maximum points at the end of proceedings.