Al Sailiya reached the semifinals of 2020-21 season Ooredoo Cup after they defeated Al Arabi 5-4 in sudden death (2-2 after regular time and 4-4 after tie-breaker) in the second quarterfinal at the Qatar SC Stadium on Sunday.

Abdulaziz Al Ansari (24th minute) and Ibrahim Nasser Kalla (33rd minute) scored for Al Arabi, while Ahmed Hammoudan (78th minute) and substitute Abdulqadir Ilyas (86th minute) scored for Al Sailiya in regular time.

In the tie-breaker, Tiago Bezerra, Ilyas, Serigne Mbodji and Majdi Siddiq scored for Al Sailiya, while Fahad Waad’s shot was blocked by Al Arabi goalkeeper Sataa Al Abbasi.

For Al Arabi, Hamdi Harbaoui, Marc Martinez, Gaser Yahia and Sebastian Soria converted from the spot, whereas Ahmed Abotrika was off-target (even with his retake of a shot), thus forcing the sudden death.

After Al Sailiya’s Abdulla Al Marri found the target, Al Arabi’s Mohammed Bader Sayyar’s shot was blocked by Al Sailiya goalkeeper Amine Lecomte with his leg, signalling a famous victory for The Peregrines.

Al Arabi, who had lost to Al Sadd in the 2019-20 season Ooredoo Cup final played just over a month ago, showed purpose from the start. That they were up by two goals past the half-hour mark was a big boost for The Dream Team.

Al Arabi goalkeeper Sataa Al Abbasi produced two quick saves in the 18th minute. He first thwarted Mohammed Mudather and then collected Ahmed Sebaie’s header off the resultant corner kick.

Iranian recruit Mahdi Torabi played a key role in both goals. The first one resulted from a counter-attack. Al Arabi defender Fahad Shnein gave a pass to Torabi near their own goal area and the latter took the ball all the way to the rival goal along the left and unleashed a shot, which goalkeeper Amine Lecomte blocked and Al Ansari slotted home the rebound.

Ibrahim Nasser scored the second goal after Al Sailiya defender Mustafa Mohammed blocked Torabi’s shot from near the goalline on the left.

Change of ends saw Al Sailiya put up a much-improved performance and they benefited from it.

Hammoudan reduced the margin by pouncing on a loose ball and putting the ball past a diving Lecomte.

Ilyas helped Al Sailiya draw parity towards the end with a quick move to send the second quarterfinal also to the tie-breaker.

Al Sailiya made it to the quarterfinal as the third team from Group A with eight points. The Peregrines had two wins, as many draws and a defeat. Their victories were against Al Duhail (3-1) and Qatar SC (1-0). They drew 4-4 with Al Sadd and 2-2 with Al Wakrah, and lost 1-5 to Al Khor.