Al Rayyan handed Al Markhiya a 6-0 defeat in Week 12 of the 2023-2024 season Expo Stars League at the Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium of Al Rayyan club on Wednesday.

The Lions’ dominating show came after Al Markhiya’s Yusupha Nije missed a penalty, which was well stopped by Al Rayyan goalkeeper Fahad Younes, in the 14th minute.

But once Al Rayyan opened their account, they were simply unstoppable and ran roughshod over their rivals, delighting the team’s fans at the glorious stadium.

The goal scorers for Al Rayyan were Gabriel Pereira (26th minute), Achraf Bencharki (47th & 61st minutes), Roger Guedes (58th minute), Ahmed Al Rawi (62nd minute) and Andre Amaro (87th minute).

To Al Markhiya’s credit, they played an even opening half and seemed to be disheartened after the penalty miss which they gained after Al Rayyan’s Bassam Al Rawi had ‘handled’ the ball in the danger area.

Al Rayyan hit back with a rampaging first goal running through open spaces before Pereira slammed in a left-footer from about five yards outside the box into the left corner, leaving Al Markhiya’s diving goalkeeper Loukay Sherif Ashour stunned.

Soon in the 33rd minute, Al Rayyan sent the ball into the net again, but the goal was overturned after a VAR review as Guedes was found to be offside.

Al Markhiya tried to force things as Nije made attempts, but he went once high of the target and on the second occasion, in added time of first half, his strike from close range just missed the post to the right.

Al Rayyan then returned from the break firing on all cylinders. A fast move from the right saw a cross being made, but Al Markhiya’s Naby Sarr while trying to cut it off only aided in the ball going to Bencharki, who headed in coolly to score (2-0).

Eleven minutes later, The Lions were back on the prowl and this time it was Guedes dribbling to beat as many as three defenders before making a long-range successful strike into the left corner (3-0).

Within minutes, it was Pereira breaking from the right at blazing speed and he provided a waiting Bencharki with a perfect pass to deflect the ball in with a lot of ease (4-0).

Al Markhiya’s woes just continued as Thiago Mendes picked on mispass from a defender to quickly move the ball to Pereira, who dashed in from the right to produce a third successful assist even while falling down as the young Ahmed Al Rawi provided the finish to make the ‘call me’ signal in celebration (5-0).

Fans now eagerly awaited a sixth goal and it came three minutes from regulation full time as Amaro flew high to head in a super Rodrigo Tabata corner kick giving more joy to his team-mates and the spectators alike (6-0).

The win took Al Rayyan’s points tally to 22, while Al Markhiya remained on four points.