The 2019-20 Ooredoo Cup quarterfinals, played on 13th February and 15th February with two matches on each day, witnessed exciting action and thrilling finish.

Al Arabi, Al Ahli, Al Sadd and Al Rayyan booked their berths in the semifinals by defeating Al Wakrah, Al Gharafa, Qatar SC and Al Khor respectively.

It will be Al Ahli vs Al Sadd and Al Rayyan vs Al Arabi in the semifinals, tentatively scheduled for 25th March.

In the first quarterfinal, Al Arabi beat Al Wakrah 1-0, with Pierre-Michelle Lasogga netting the goal.

The second quarterfinal saw the most notable result as Al Ahli knocked out two-time defending champions Al Gharafa by an identical 1-0 margin. Captain Nabil El Zhar scored the all-important goal.

Al Gharafa thus bowed out of cup competitions in successive weeks after they lost to Al Markhiya in the Amir Cup pre-quarterfinals.

Al Gharafa missed the services of Hector Moreno, Koo Ja-Cheol, Ahmed Alaaeldin and Sofiane Hanni to injuries.

Al Ahli had to play with 10 men from the 67th minute after Hernan Perez was shown a red card (second yellow).

Defending QNB Stars League champions Al Sadd defeated Qatar SC in tie-breaker in the third quarterfinal.

The tie-breaker was enforced after the teams were level 1-1 at the end of regular time. Hamed Ismail and Kayke Rodriguez scored for Al Sadd and Qatar SC respectively.

The change in tournament format this season stipulated that if a match ends in a tie, penalty shoot-out would be straightaway enforced to determine the result.

In the tie-breaker, Abdelkarim Hassan, Hamed Ismail, Mohammed Waad Al Bayati, Ayoub Mashour and Rami Suhail found the target for Al Sadd.

For Qatar SC, Sardor Rashidov, Elmehdi Barrahma, Ahmed Moein and Kayke were on target, while Abdenasser Elkhayati’s shot was blocked by Al Sadd goalkeeper Meshaal Issa Barshim.

There was high drama in the last quarterfinal before Al Rayyan edged Al Khor in sudden death (7-6) after the regular time ended 1-1 and tie-breaker ended 5-5.

Tiago Bezerra and Rodrigo Tabata scored for Al Khor and Al Rayyan respectively in regular time.

Khaled Muftah, Ibrahim Masoud, Ahmed Abdelmaqsoud, Lee Jae-Ik and Rodrigo Tabata scored for Al Rayyan in the tie-breaker. Afterwards, Abdulrahman Al Korbi and Mekki Tombari found the target for The Lions in sudden death.

For Al Khor, Said Brahimi, Musaab Abdulmajid, Lucca Borges, Ahmed Salem and Ahmed Al Mohannadi were on target in the tie-breaker. Mohammed Al Jabri too was lucky with his kick in sudden death, but Abdulrahman Rajab’s shot was blocked by Al Rayyan goalkeeper Saoud Al Hajri with his leg.