Al Arabi stunning fourth-placed and in-form team Al Gharafa and Al Markhiya getting relegated to the Second Division after Al Kharaitiyat defeated Qatar SC to stay afloat highlighted the QNB Stars League Week 21 fixtures played on Saturday, 17th March.

Al Arabi thus completed their fourth successive victory. In the process, The Dream Team dealt a big blow to Al Gharafa’s hopes of staying in the top four as The Cheetahs are now on the same number of points (32) with Umm Salal, who had held Al Rayyan to a 2-2 draw.

Al Arabi’s win was noteworthy given that Al Gharafa had dominated possession and even took the lead through defender Rubert Jose.

Al Arabi struck through Diego Jardel’s penalty and a two-goal effort by Ghanaian striker Kwame Karikari.

The first three positions had already been confirmed ahead of the round, with Al Duhail, Al Sadd and Al Rayyan finishing in that order. The battle for the fourth position thus boiled down to the final round of matches, which will be played after a gap of three weeks.

Al Gharafa take on Qatar SC and Umm Salal face Al Markhiya in Week 22.

Al Markhiya raised some hope by putting up a fighting performance against Al Duhail, but went down 2-4.

Youssef Msakni and Yousef El Arabi both netted two goals for Al Duhail, while Mohamed El Neel and Eric Pereira scored for Al Markhiya.

The battle for the top-scorer award further hotted up between El Arabi (26) and Msakni (25).

The Oryxes were done in by six docked points after their victory over Al Sadd in the first phase and Al Gharafa in the second were overturned due to administrative mistakes. The first for fielding an ineligible player and then for violating the rule for fielding resident players.

Al Kharaitiyat were the biggest gainers when they won by a 3-2 margin. It was Saoud Nasser’s late goal that helped The Thunders pull off an unbelievable win.

Anwar Diba and Rachid Tiberkanine were the other scorers of Al Kharaitiyat, while Qatar SC’s goals came through Osama Omari and Ali Awad.

Al Kharaitiyat will go into the play-off with Second Division runners-up Al Wakrah for a place in the top flight. Winners Al Shahania have earned promotion to next season’s QNB Stars League.

Al Sadd lost to Al Khor, with Salem Khalifa scoring the all-important goal.

Rodrigo Tabata and Abderrazaq Hamdallah were on target for Al Rayyan, while Mahmoud Mawas and Oussama Darragi scored for Umm Salal.

Uzbek striker Temurkhuja Abdukholiqov (twice) and Wagner Ribeiro got on to the scoresheet as Al Sailiya blanked Al Ahli 3-0 in the other action.

A total of 23 goals were scored compared to 19 in Week 20.