The QNB Stars League sprung into life over the weekend after a long summer break, and four attackers grabbed two goals for their teams to secure opening day victories. In our regular feature Stars of the League, we highlight the players who did the business in round one. 

Yusef El Arabi, was amongst the goals again for the leagues newest Al Duhail who picked up a 3-2 win over Qatar SC on Friday evening. The Moroccan hit-man was last season’s leading goalscorer in the league and made a dream start to the new campaign grabbing two, including a last gasp winner for the Red Knights. El Arabi will be hoping to find the back of the net again next weekend when Duhail takes on Al Arabi in the stand-out fixture of round 2. 

Al Markhiya youngster Mohammed Salah marked his debut in the league with two goals to give the newly promoted side a memorable 2-1 victory over Al Sadd. The second half substitute struck twice late in the game for his side. The tricky attacker carefully beat the Sadd offside trap before confidently slotting past Qatar international keeper Saad Al Dossari with two carbon copy goals. Salah will be hoping that his performance from the bench will convince head coach Yusef Adam to give him a starting place when Markhiya take on fellow promoted side Qatar SC next weekend. 

Al Sailiya marked their return to league action with a big 3-1 away win against Al Arabi. Central to the Peregrines performance was midfielder Wagner Ribero who scored two vital goals in the game. Having fallen behind early in the match, Ribero confidently grabbed the equalizer from a tight angle. Whilst minutes into the second half, the former El Jaish midfielder scored a sublime free-kick to give side the lead. Wagner will be hoping to continue his goal-scoring ways and pile more misery onto Al Sadd in their round 2 matchup. 

 A captain’s performance from Rodrigo Tabata ensured that his Al Rayyan side came away from a tricky tie against Al Khor with a 4-2 win. The Lions number 10 opened the scoring from the penalty spot in the first half, and added the sides third of the night with a free-kick that was spilled into the goal by Khor keeper Baba Djibril. As ever, the veteran was pulling the strings in attack for Rayyan and linked up well with summer signing Abdulrazak Hamdullah. Tabata will now be targeting back to back league wins when they take on Al Kharaitiyat next weekend.