Yacine Brahimi struck a hat-trick as Al Rayyan beat Umm Salal 4-0 in Week 12 of the 2019-20 QNB Stars League at the Al Gharafa Stadium on Friday.

Brahimi scored in the 33rd, 55th and 67th minutes (penalty) after Abdulaziz Hatem opened the scoring as early as the fifth minute.

Brahimi, who joined The Lions from top Portuguese side FC Porto at the start of this season, has been playing a vital role in their good run so far. He is leading the QNB Stars League’s top scorers’ chart with 10 goals.

Al Rayyan now have 28 points, while Umm Salal remained at the rock bottom of the table with five points.

Umm Salal have an uphill task on hand as Al Shahania, who also have the same number of points, had beaten Al Gharafa 2-1 in the day’s early kick-off.

It was a disappointing performance by Umm Salal than their 2-2 draw with Al Rayyan in the first leg, in the tournament’s opening week.

The Orange Fortress recently replaced Spaniard Raul Caneda with their former player and Moroccan Aziz Ben Askar. This was their ninth defeat of the season, while Al Rayyan notched up their eighth victory and stayed as the only unbeaten side, along with leaders Al Duhail.

It was all Al Rayyan with 66 per cent possession of the ball. Their domination was complete and they could score twice in both sessions.

Abdulaziz Hatem opened the floodgates following a brilliant spadework by Brahimi.

After Rodrigo Tabata missed a penalty in the 20th minute, Brahimi himself was on target thrice as the game progressed.

Tabata was unlucky as he narrowly missed the target later on.

Umm Salal had to play with 10 men after Rami Fayez was red-carded for fouling Frank Kom in the 64th minute and Brahimi completed his hat-trick by converting from the spot.

For Umm Salal, Fahad Khalfan’s header was collected by Al Rayyan goalkeeper Fahd Younis and Jasser Yahya’s rising shot hit the horizontal.