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Lekhwiya survived a late fight back from Al Gharafa and a red card to their striker Sebastian Soria to win their Qatar Stars League encounter 3-2 at the Thani bin Jassim stadium yesterday.<br />
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Lekhwiya had many players away on international duty during the midseason break as head coach Michael Laudrup remarked that it was only on the eve of the match that the entire squad had reunited and trained together.<br />
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But it was Laudrup’s boys who dominated the match right from the off. Soria opened the scoring for the team early in the 15^th minute and then doubled his team’s advantage in the 35^th minute.<br />
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Lekhwiya looked comfortable going into the break with a 2-0 score line. And further established their dominance when striker Ismail Mohammad scored in the 50^th minute to give his team a 3-0 lead.<br />
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But then Gharafa clawed one back in the 61^st minute through Mustafa Abdulla. And that’s when the fight back began. Gharafa were steadily building in confidence and were mounting constant attacks. Lekhwiya players were getting rattled by it and the frustration surfaced when Soria got a red card in the 76^th minute.<br />
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But despite that surge in momentum and having the advantage of an extra man, Gharafa could only find more goal late into injury time when Lekhwiya’s Ahmed Aziz scored an own goal in the 91^st minute. That made the score 3-2. The Red Knights however overcame the late scare as they held on for the win.<br />
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Lekhwiya will be happy that with this win they have created a gap of two points between them and Al Sadd, who could only manage a draw in their match against Al Wakrah yesterday (2-2).