Umm Salal beat Al Kharaitiyat 1-0 in Week 8 of the 2020-21 season QNB Stars League at the Al Ahli Stadium on Wednesday.

Kayke Rodrigues scored the only goal of the match off a penalty kick in the 90th minute.

It was Umm Salal’s second win, which gave them a tally of seven points. Al Kharaitiyat stood on six points following their sixth defeat.

After a slow start, Umm Salal found the net, but were denied by an offside call in the sixth minute. Adel Alawi, after receiving a pass from the midfield by Kayke, charged into the Al Kharaitiyat box and smartly slipped the ball past keeper Shehab Mamdouh. The ball crashed into the net, but he was ruled offside.

In the 13th minute, Umm Salal’s Ismail Mahmoud made a sliding tackle that saw Mohammed Shaban collapse in a heap and referee Abdulla Ali Athba quickly flashed a yellow card to him.

Four minutes later, Mahmoud and Pejman Mohammadreza suffered a head bump while going for a loopy header inside the Al Kharaitiyat box, resulting in stoppage of play for a few minutes.

In the 32nd minute, Al Kharaitiyat’s Sayaf Al Korbi produced a snapheader from close range on a loopy cross, but he could not find pace as Umm Salal keeper Baba Malick pouched the deflection.

In the following few minutes, striker Mahmoud curled in two crosses from the right flank, but met with little success. On one occasion, the Al Kharatiyat keeper punched the cross away while the second time his team-mate Ismail Ebrahim lacked pace to take the volley inside the Al Kharaitiyat box.

A tireless Ismail Mahmoud unleashed a bullet from close range, but Al Kharaitiyat keeper Mamdouh blocked the shot in the 49th minute. A minute later, he sent a loopy tap over the head of a  charging keeper, but the ball landed on top of the net with no player on the Al Kharaitiyat goalline.

Exactly on the hour mark, Umm Salal’s Mohammed Nawaf attempted a threatening volley from the edge of the box which slipped past the Al Kharaitiyat goalpost without causing any damage.

Seven minutes later, Moroccan midfielder Rachid Tiberkanine, with acres of space to shoot the ball into the net, ended up hitting straight into the mid-rift of Umm Salal keeper. In the 74th minute, Al Kharaitiyat’s Mensah Evans also got space to score, but the Ghana forward misfired with his direction from close range.

Just before the end, Kayke converted a penalty awarded against Al Kharaitiyat’s Alhaje Mohammed’s handball infringement.