Al Wakrah defeated Al Arabi 4-3 in a thrilling and eventful concluding Week 13 clash of the 2024-2025 season Ooredoo Stars League at the Stadium 974 on Friday.

Al Arabi had almost drawn parity with a ‘fourth’ goal, but a VAR check found a player to be offside after a fabulous left-footed strike from Rodri Sanchez in the third minute of stoppage time.

Earlier, Al Arabi’s Marco Verratti received a red card in the 76th minute with a second yellow after he landed his spikes on the boot of Al Wakrah’s Jacinto Dala (who was instrumental in three of the four Al Wakrah goals).

The goal scorers for Al Wakrah were Dala (fifth minute), Aissa Laidouni (ninth minute), Suhaib Gannan (50th minute) and Ricardo Gomes (60th minute penalty).

For Al Arabi, Verratti (16th minute), Rodri (67th minute) and Youssef Msakni (74th minute) were on target.

Both teams had gone into the crucial clash on a slender one-point difference in the standings, but while the result spurred Al Wakrah’s tally to 17 points, Al Arabi remained on 13 points.

Al Wakrah held a double-goal advantage twice in the game and Al Arabi hit back thrice before being left to rue the chance of finding the equalizer. The seven-goal thriller had the spectators delighted with its exciting moments.

The frenzy began early enough as Al Wakrah went up with a Dala header – which was first blocked by Al Arabi goalkeeper Jassim Al Hail, but Dala got to the ball again on a ricochet to put it into the net. Dala was provided with a lobbed cross from inside the box by Ayoub Assal.

Angolan Dala was back in the act again within three minutes as he set up Laidouni, just outside the box, to fire home Al Wakrah’s second goal.

Al Arabi hit back soon as Rodri provided Verratti with a fine pass inside the box to shoot into the right corner from inside near top of the box.

The exciting goal-scoring action continued in the second half as Dala put through a fine ball while on charge for Gannan to go ahead and beat Al Arabi’s Abdou Diallo and advancing Al Hail and The Blue Wave went up 3-1.

The challenge became increasingly difficult for The Dream Team when just before the hour mark Diallo brought down Assal with a push from behind, inside the danger area and the referee after a VAR called for a penalty. Gomes scored from the spot (4-1).

Al Arabi stepped up their attack in response and were rewarded with their second goal as Isaac Lihadji moved a pass back to a rushing-in Rodri to find the right corner of the net with his left-foot strike.

Star forward Msakni brought up Al Arabi’s third goal with a superb header (from a Rodri assist) that hit the crossbar before going in (3-4).

Matters for Al Arabi, however, became worse when Verratti landed his spikes on Dala’s foot during a tackle and the referee flashed the former with a second yellow card, signalling his suspension.

In the end, Rodri’s spectacular kick, following Ahmed Fathi’s effort to pick on a defensive lapse and relay the ball, delighted both the team and the fans alike but the joy was shortlived as the referee took a VAR and Hassan Alaaeddin, who came in as a substitute for Diallo in the 87th minute, was found to be offside.