QSL Match Roundup

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Al Gharafa brush past Umm Salal 2-0

Umm Salal took on in-form Al Gharafa at the Qatar SC stadium on Wednesday in round 10 of the QSL season. The Cheetahs were successful in penetrating the Orange fortress as they went on to win the game 2-0. After a scoreless first half, Johnson Kendrick and Abdulghani Muneer got their names on the score sheet to ensure that Al Gharafa won their fifth match in a row.

Early on in the first half Kendrick Johnson of Al Gharafa hit the bar with a quick shot after an interception. Umm Salal tried their best to get the lead but Al Gharafa keeper Yousef Hassan was present to protect his goal as he blocked a couple of shots on his goal one of them from Umm Salal’s Brazilian midfielder by Alef Santos. The first half ended with both sides honours even at 0-0 despite Gharafa enjoying the majority of possession and chances.

In the fifty-seventh minute Johnson Kendrick scored his third goal of the season after a brilliant counter attack by the Cheetahs’s. Abdulghani Muneer passed the ball to the unmarked Brazilian striker in the box, who took the ball around the keeper and passed the ball into the net.

Al Gharafa then doubled their lead in the sixty-ninth minute with a well-worked goal from Abdulghani Muneer. After a throw in, Vladimir Weiss passed to Muneer, who drove the ball into the box from the right, dribbled past two players and shot the ball into the goal after it came off keeper Baba Malik’s hands on the near post.

Yannick Sagbo could have pulled one back for Umm Salal but his free kick came off the bar in the eighty-ninth minute after Yahiri was fouled just outside the box. Al Gharafa ended up keeping the two-goal cushion and went on to win keeping their top four hopes alive.

With this win Pedro Caixinha’s men remain undefeated in their last eight matches and have twenty points from ten games. Bulent Yugun’s Umm Salal now have 2 losses from their last three games and are sixth in the table with thirteen points from ten games.

Wakrah register first win of the season with win over Al Khor

Bottom-placed Al Wakrah on Wednesday edged out Al Khor 1-0 to score their first win of the QSL season but the two sides could barely mpress with their on-field tactics. Mohsine Moutaouali scored the only goal of the match in the 43rd minute at Al Wakrah Stadium where scrappy football saw players getting tangled with match officials and rivals alike. In the first 10 minutes of the clash, the visitors Al Khor enjoyed more ball possession compared to the home side coached Tunisian coach Kais Yâakoubi.

However the the round 10 clash turned into a physical game as Al Khor’s Mouhssine Iajour seemingly head-butted Al Wakrah's Ali Hussain,captain of the home side, as the players got ready for a free-kick. Hussain collapsed - as if struck by lightning - causing a stoppage in play amid constant berating and finger-pointing from players of the two sides.

After much delay, when the free-kick was finally taken, it was Iajour's turn to put on a show as the feisty Moroccan striker tumbled following a rough tackle from Hussain. Another stoppage in play ensued as players quarreled inside the Al Khor box in the 17th minute.

At the half-hour mark, Al Wakrah's Hamood Al-Yazidi hoodwinked his marker but his shot - fired at an acute angle - was well pouched by Al Khor keeper Baba Djibril.

With no let-up in rough tactics employed by both sides, Al Khor coach Jean Fernandez decided to substitute a limping Iajour in the 32nd minute, bringing out young Ali Abdulkarem to replace the Moroccan forward.

In the 36th minute, Al Wakrah's Abdulrahman Fakhroo produced a spectacular snap-header off a long-range free-kick but the ball smashed into the Al Khor crossbar with goalkeeper Djibril completely beaten.

With two minutes before the first-half whistle went off, Al Wakrah grabbed the lead.

Blue Waves midfielder Ahmed Fadel slipped in a neat ball from the edge of the box toward Moutaouali who should have been marked by the two Al Khor defenders in their own box.With his markers slow to react, Moutaouali tapped the ball down before firing his shot into the net with goalkeeper Djibril unable to effect a stop in the 43rd minute.

With goal-scoring opportunities reducing with each minute in the second half, the players often engaged tough tackles. In the 75th minute, Al Wakrah's Waheed Tahiri was shown a yellow card for bringing down Sadeeqi of Al Khor.

Wakrah slowly began to dominate proceedings with the game coming to a close, and held out to register their first win of the season, much to the joy of manager Kais Yâakoubi.