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<p>The Round 5 of QNB Stars League, played over Thursday, Friday and Saturday, witnessed thrilling contests, some of them upsets. While a few teams punched way above their weight, some others failed to live up to expectations.</p><p>The most notable were the first victories of newcomers Al Markhiya, Al Kharaitiyat  and Al Ahli. All three were surprise wins too. Al Markhiya prevailed over Al Khor by a solitary goal to officially open their account after their victory in the first round over Al Sadd got overturned for fielding an ineligible player.</p><p>Spaniard Joaquin Caparros-coached Al Ahli shocked Qatar SC by a 3-0 margin. The result saw Gabriel Calderon’s Qatar SC being pushed from eighth to 10th in the table.</p><p>In the week’s opening action, Al Kharaitiyat had done extremely well to down Al Gharafa, who came off a win over Al Khor, 4-1. It helped Al Kharaitiyat, coached by Tunisian Ahmad Al Ajlani, move from 10th to seventh position. Nevertheless, Al Gharafa stayed sixth.</p><p>Al Ahli moved from 11th to ninth, whereas Al Markhiya stayed at the rock bottom. Thus, all 12 teams in this season’s QNB Stars League have scored at least one victory.  </p>
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<p>The leader board did not change as Al Duhail (+13) stayed atop on better goal difference than Al Sadd (+9) though they both have the same number of points (15) after maintaining an all-win record.</p><p>Al Sadd outplayed Al Arabi 3-1 in the Qatar Derby and Al Duhail had it easy against Umm Salal, winning 4-1. Al Rayyan’s 1-0 win over Al Sailiya saw The Lions leapfrog to the third spot from fourth. Al Sailiya can take heart from the fact that they put up a good fight before losing and remained fifth, a creditable achievement so far. Al Rayyan are now third, three points adrift of the top two sides. </p><p>There was not a single red card and drawn result in the round, which saw 19 goals being scored as against the previous round’s 27, the most number of goals scored for a week so far this season. There were three penalties, awarded to Al Kharaitiyat, Al Rayyan and Al Duhail.</p>