Omar Mohammed netted a brace as Al Shamal claimed an emphatic 4-0 victory against Al Duhail in Week 20 of the 2024-2025 season Ooredoo Stars League at Abdullah Bin Khalifa Stadium on Saturday.

With just two more matches to the end of the season, Al Duhail's loss has further thrown open the race for the league title, thereby making the next two fixtures very crucial as the competition hots up.

Omar Mohammed’s brace came in the second minute and 46th minutes of play, while Mohamed Al Mannai (ninth minute) and Younes El Hannach (45+7 minute) added one each to move Al Shamal’s tally to 29 points.

Al Duhail, who came into the game as league leaders with a one-point advantage over second-placed Al Sadd, remained on 44 points.

Al Shamal had a dream start to the match with an early goal coming their way in the second minute of play with Omar Mohamed powering home with a right-footed shot from the centre of the box after a fine assist from Younes Belhanda.

Things turned from bad to worse for Al Duhail as Al Shamal turned in their second goal of the night in the eighth minute, this time through Al Mannai, whose header from Omid Ebrahimi's cross was poorly handled by goalkeeper Salah Hassan.

A stunned Al Duhail’s attempt at pulling one back almost immediately was thwarted with Benjamin Bourigeaud’s right-footed shot from the centre of the box, from an assist by Hakim Ziyech going inches higher than expected.

Gingered by the turn of events, Al Shamal grew stronger with each passing minute, and they began pounding The Red Knights wall of defence relentlessly in search of more goals, which eventually came six minutes into added time through El Hannach, whose low but well-placed shot sailed straight into the right-hand bottom corner of Al Duhail's net to ensure a comfortable 3-0 lead for the visitors going into halftime.

Al Duhail made a raft of changes at half-time with Ismael Mohammed coming in to replace Yousef Ayman, while Edmilson Junior was substituted for Luis Alberto, but despite the change of guards, the situation turned from bad to worse for the hosts with Al Shamal adding to their tally just immediately on resumption of the second half with Omar Mohammed catching Al Duhail’s defence napping as he hit his second of the night, and his club's fourth, with a low-driven shot from an assist by Ebrahimi.

The fourth goal seemed to take the wind off Al Duhail’s sail as they appeared to be playing only for time from then on before the referee finally put an end to the game minutes later.