Al Rayyan beat Al Arabi 2-0 in Week 19 of the 2020-21 season QNB Stars League at the Al Sadd Stadium on Friday.

Star Ivorian striker Yohan Boli scored on either half (15th and 84th minutes) as Al Rayyan are now on 34 points with their 10th victory.

Al Arabi remained on 26 points following their seventh defeat.

Cheered on by their sizeable passionate fans, both Al Rayyan and Al Arabi, traditional rivals with many titles to their credit, fought it out.

Al Rayyan dominated early exchanges barring a long-range shot by Al Arabi’s Mehrdad Mohammadi that went wide of the target.

Boli opened the scoring with a deft shot beating the challenge of Al Arabi defenders Marc Martinez and Fahad Shnein. And a diving goalkeeper Mahmoud Abunada could not stop the ball from going into the goal.

Al Rayyan youngster Naif Al Hadrami had his shot from the right blocked by Abunada in the 41st minute. Ibrahim Masoud came up with a volley on the rebound, but the ball went wide across the goal.

During the session, Al Arabi’s Sebastian Soria sent a long-range shot straight to goalkeeper Saoud Al Hajri.

Al Arabi obviously upped the ante in the second half. Soon after the restart, Ahmed Fathy shot over the Al Rayyan goal. He was at it again in the 51st minute, but his header off a Soria chip cross was parried by the goalkeeper.

Even as Al Arabi kept pressing hard and Aron Gunnarsson’s long-ranger flew wide of the left post, Al Rayyan found their second goal towards close, with a waiting Boli placing in a cross from the right by Mohammed Alaaeldin.

Al Rayyan and Al Arabi had played out a 1-1 draw in the first leg of 2020-21 season QNB Stars League.