Al Duhail’s thrilling 4-3 win over Al Sadd in the much-awaited and keenly-contested encounter highlighted the QNB Stars League’s Week 19 action that concluded on Saturday.

The Red Knights thus made a giant stride in their march to the title.

Ismail Mohammed, captain Youssef Msakny (two goals) and Youssef El Arabi were the scorers for Al Duhail, while Jugurtha Hamroun and Baghdad Bounedjah (twice) were on target for Al Sadd.

In the process, Al Duhail stayed as the only unbeaten side in this season’s QNB Stars League and opened up a five-point lead at the top. Djamel Belmadi’s men have 51 points, after notching up their 16th victory which is the most by any side, as against Al Sadd’s 46.

It looked like Al Sadd were cruising to victory until the 87th minute before Msakny helped them draw level and then El Arabi gave them a famous win with the last kick of the game.

The high-scoring win contributed much to the 30 goals scored in one of the weeks that witnessed the most goals being scored in the entire season. The total tally in Week 18 was 20.

Al Gharafa gained much ground after the round by storming into the top four following a 6-1 victory over third-placed Al Rayyan. The Cheetahs, with their eighth win, took their tally to 29 points.

Wesley Sneijder (two goals), Abdelaziz Hatem, Diego Amado, Mehdi Taremi and Muad Hassan scored for Al Gharafa. Al Rayyan’s goal came off the boots of Abderrazzaq Hamdallah, who remained as the third-best scorer with 16 goals.

Al Gharafa had received a shot in the arm when the Qatar Football Association’s Disciplinary Committee overturned their 2-3 defeat to Al Markhiya in Week 18 and handed them a 3-0 win instead. The result was overturned after The Oryxes had breached the rule regarding fielding resident players in QNB Stars League matches by including six in the start list in place of the stipulated five.

Umm Salal drew 2-2 with Qatar SC to be fifth with 28 points. The Orange Fortress were 2-0 up by the 20th minute, with Yannick Sagbo and Oussama Darragi finding the target, only to see the rivals hit back through Osama Omari and Bruno Gallo.

Al Sailiya’s woes compounded when they crashed to a 1-2 defeat at the hands of Al Khor. Temurkhuja Abdukholiqov got the game’s opener for The Peregrines. Al Khor’s goals came from Madson and Helal Mohamed.

Al Sailiya are sixth with 25 points, whereas Al Khor, 10th, moved to 18 points.

Al Ahli defeated Al Kharaitiyat 3-2 to stay seventh on 22 points. Yasine Chikhaoui, Mohammed Muntari and Hamza Younes were successful for The Brigadiers, whereas Rachid Tiberkanine scored The Thunders’ both goals.

Al Arabi registered their second successive victory by prevailing 3-1 over Al Markhiya. A Diego Jardel goal and a double by Kwame Karikari saw The Dream Team through. Al Markhiya reduced the deficit through Leonardo de Souza.