Al Rayyan beat Al Kharaitiyat 3-0 in Week 17 of the 2020-21 season QNB Stars League at the Qatar SC Stadium on Monday.

Gabriel Mercado (45), Naif Al Hadhrami (52nd minute) and Yacine Brahimi (85th minute) scored the goals for Al Rayyan, who now have a tally of 28 points.

Al Kharaitiyat remained at the bottom of the table with six points.

The match got off to fast start, with Al Kharaitiyat’s Mensah Evans getting to aim at the goal twice inside the first four minutes. On the first occasion, his shot from long range was blocked by an Al Rayyan defender and the second shot, from inside the box, sailed above the crossbar.

Barely a couple of minutes later, off an indirect corner kick, Al Kharaitiyat’s Nasser Al Nasr also got the chance to shoot towards the goal, but his shot was blocked by Yohan Boli with his back.

In the eighth minute, Al Rayyan’s Ibrahim Masoud created a bit of space away from his marker on the edge of the Al Kharaitiyat box. Masoud’s left-footed drive that stayed low was quickly saved with a dive by keeper Shehab Ellethy.

Three minutes later, Al Rayyan’s Franck Kom attempted a similar long-range solo shot from the edge of the box. However, his bullet sailed above the Al Kharaitiyat box.

In probably his best chance to score in the first half, Evans received a neat short pass inside the Al Rayyan box. But the 23-year-old Ghanaian produced a left-footed drive that he sent above the crossbar despite having a clear view of the goal in the 36th minute.

In the first minute of injury time, Mercado tapped the ball into the Al Kharaitiyat net from close range. Players of both teams jumped high to connect a long-range free-kick, but missed the flight of the ball. An alert Mercado quickly jumped and tapped the ball into the open net to give his side the lead going into second half.

In the 50th minute, Al Rayyan went 2-0 up. Ibrahim Masoud found Naif with a neat cross and the latter arrived inside the box with perfect timing and wasted little time in tapping the ball to the right of the goalkeeper. 

In the 72nd minute, Evans attempted one more long-range drive, but his shot was smartly saved by the keeper summing up the losing team’s luckless display.

Captain Brahimi rounded off the tally with a quick tap into the goal from close range.