Al Wakrah played out a goalless draw with Umm Salal in Round 2 (Group A) of the 2019-20 Ooredoo Cup at the Al Ahli Stadium on Friday.

Al Wakrah now have four points and Umm Salal one.

Al Wakrah slightly dominated the exchanges in the first half and forced five corner kicks as against Umm Salal’s one.

Mohamed Benyettou and Meshaal Abdullah led Al Wakrah’s charge, with Omar Ali in the supporting role. Benyettou had two chances, but came up with feeble attempts. First, it was a header straight to goalkeeper Muhannad Naim and then an angular shot, which was also saved by the keeper.

Omar had a first-time shot saved by Muhannad.

With regular strikers Yannick Sagbo and Mahmoud Al Mawas missing in action, Umm Salal’s attacks lacked bite. Murad Naji came closest to scoring after 15 minutes, only to see his grounder being parried by Al Wakrah goalkeeper Hassan Idriss.    

Al Wakrah continued to have an edge in the second half. In the 71st minute, Benyettou sent his on-the-turn shot against the right upright and Jassim Al Jalabi skied the rebound.

They brought in Sanchez Isaias and Faisal Abdulla to rev up the attack.

The Umm Salal goalkeeper was kept busy and Faisal tested him with a first-time shot in the 83rd minute, off a cross from the right by Al Jalabi, in what looked like the winning goal.

The stalemate remained and the teams shared the spoils.