Al Rayyan made a robust start to their second-leg campaign in Week 12 of the 2024-2025 season Ooredoo Stars League by scoring a comeback 6-2 win over Umm Salal at the Grand Hamad Stadium of Al Arabi club on Friday, January 10, 2025.

Trailing 1-2 at the half-time break, The Lions scored a whopping five goals – within 30-odd minutes – to subdue The Orange Fortress’ challenge.

While Antonio Mance (43rd minute) and Oussama Tannane (45+4 minute) scored for Umm Salal, the goals for Al Rayyan came from Roger Guedes (sixth and 78th minutes), Achraf Bencharki (60th and 68th minutes), Tamim Mansour (84th minute) and David Garcia (88th minute).

The win also saw Al Rayyan leapfrog to 16 points, while Umm Salal remained on 14 points.

Forwards - Brazilian Guedes and Moroccan Bencharki - were at the forefront of Al Rayyan attacks and Guedes provided his team with the early breakthrough scoring off a Bencharki cross. The shot was attempted to be stopped by Umm Salal goalkeeper Loukay Sherif Ashour, but it went through his raised hands to hit the inside of the crossbar before bouncing in (1-0).

After a consistent tussle, Umm Salal succeeded in finding the equalizer late in the first half as the tall Mance headed in a corner kick into the right of the goal (1-1).

Umm Salal soon gained advantage in added time of the opening half as Tannane scored superbly after Kenji Gorre provided him with a fine on-the-run ball with the former overlapping an Umm Salal defender to score with his left foot diagonally into the right corner (2-1).

Post break, Al Rayyan came out firing on all cylinders and soon Umm Salal goalkeeper Ashour was left with all to do. In the 53rd minute, he made back-to-back saves – once leaping to keep the ball away and then keeping a strike off a corner kick at bay.

But then, The Lions stepped up their charge. On the hour mark, a fabulous Bencharki fabulous right-footed strike from the top of the box saw Al Rayyan draw parity at 2-2.

In the 66th minute, a Mahmoud Hassan (Trezeguet) shot was blocked by stretched leg of Ashour and the next minute an Al Rayyan header just missed the right post.

That did not matter much as minutes later, Bencharki broke past midway to make a clean strike that beat the lone keeper with the ball going in just inside of the right post (3-2).

Guedes was back in the act as he made the scoreline 4-2 scoring from the left after substitute Tamim Mansour’s header off a corner kick.

In the 80th minute, there was another Al Rayyan goal, but the player was ruled offside.

The disappointment was shrugged off by Tameem Al Abdullah as he fetched his team another goal deflecting in a superb Guedes cross from the left (5-2).

Soon, Rodrigo Tabata swung into action, but his strike was kept away by the Umm Salal goalkeeper.

Providing finishing touches to Al Rayyan’s delightful win was Garcia as he leapt to reach a corner kick and the ball bounced into the right corner of the net (6-2).