Al Duhail and Al Rayyan were the two teams that gained the most after the QNB Stars League’s Week 9 fixtures, played on Friday and Saturday.

Al Sadd handed a heavy loss to Al Sadd by winning the much-anticipated encounter by a 4-2 margin. The Red Knights thus continued their unbeaten run, taking their points tally to 25.

Youssef El Arabi kept topping the scorers’ chart with 15 goals after scoring Al Duhail’s second goal. The Moroccan striker looks well on course to break his own record of 24 goals last season.

Al Rayyan’s 3-2 victory over Al Gharafa was the other main highlight of the week. The Lions leapfrogged Al Sadd to the second position with a point less than Al Duhail, while The Wolves stayed on 21.

Prolific scorer Abderrazaq Hamdallah was the star of Al Rayyan’s show with a two-goal effort, taking his tally to eight goals, while Sebastian Soria also found himself on the scoresheet against Al Gharafa to be on seven goals this season. The setback saw The Cheetahs slip from seventh to ninth.

The race on top suddenly switched between Al Duhail and Al Rayyan, who both registered their eight victory, after Week 9 action that saw only 17 goals being scored as against 30 in the previous week, with two matches drawn. Al Sadd thus suffered their second defeat.

Al Sailiya maintained their fourth position in the standings despite losing 0-1 to Al Khor, who jumped from eighth to sixth. Another top side that fumbled yet again were Umm Salal when they had to settle for a 1-1 draw against basement side Qatar SC.

Al Khor continued to make good progress under new Tunisian coach Nassif Al Bayawi, whose first league match in charge saw them beat Qatar SC in Week 8.

It was a lifeline for Qatar SC, who are fighting to avoid relegation after coming from the Second Division. At least, the draw helped The Kings arrest their losing streak.  

Al Kharaitiyat managed to compensate for the heavy loss they suffered at the hands of Al Duhail in the previous week when they put it across Al Ahli. The win took their points tally to nine and enabled them to move from ninth to seventh spot, while Al Ahli stumbled from sixth to eighth.

Freshers Al Markhiya did well to hold Al Arabi, who played their second game under Croatian coach Luka Bonacic. Both teams are on six points.