Al Kharaitiyat’s Mohammed Abdullah fights for the ball with Eljaish’s Karim Ziani (top) during their QSL match in Doha, yesterday.
DOHA: Midfielder Wasim Rizq scored the only goal of the match as Al Sadd edged Al Gharafa to record their ninth straight win in the Qatar Stars League (QSL) yesterday.
Al Sadd also opened an 11 point lead against second-place teams Al Rayyan and defending champions Lekhwiya, who play their QSL matches today.
In other QSL matches yesterday, Al Kharaitiyat registered their first win in this year’s campaign by stunning Eljaish winning 2-0 at Suhaim bin Hamad Stadium.
The win lifts Al Kharaitiyat off the bottom of the table and now occupy tenth position.
Elsewhere, Al Khor drew with Al Sailiyah 1-1.
Al Khor and Al Sailiyah have seven and five points respectively.
Al Gharafa who sacked their manager Paulo Silas on Wednesday, started the game brightly. In the 10th minute, the home side nearly went ahead when Raphael Alex saw his effort go high above Al Sadd’s crossbar.
The first shot of the game came from Qatar’s Rizq, who saw his long-range effort go above the crossbar.
Al Gharafa kept creating chances and in the 19th minute, Alex struck a 25 yard shot that was well saved by Al Sadd keeper Mohamed Saqr.
Six minutes later, Raul, who joined the club in May, produced a moment of brilliance in the 25th minute, when he neatly dribbled past three Al Gharafa defenders but found his shot cleared off the line.
His effort spurred the Al Sadd players and started to create numerous chances in quick succession
In the 28th minute, a looping header by Razak gave Al Sadd the lead, courtesy of a corner kick.
Al Gharafa’s goalkeeper Qassim Burhan came off his line to try and clear the ball away from the penalty box.
But the clearance fell into Razak’s path who made no mistake of putting the ball in the back of the net. The goal provided much disappointment of Burhan who was blocked by a team-mate.
In the second half, both teams played the same temp of football as in the first half.
Early in the first half, Al Gharafa’s striker Djordje Rakic went agonizingly close when his deflected effort went inches past Saqr’s post.
Al Sadd, coached by Hussein Amute, were unable to add to their goal tally and survived a scare late in the game, when the home side nearly equalised in the 90th minute..
Tardelli Diago left-footed cross was met by Rakic, but saw his header rebound off the crossbar with Saqr well beaten.
In the first match between Eljaish and Al Khairaityat, Abdelhamid Mahmoud opened the proceedings in the first half.
After the visitors doubled their lead early in the second period, Eljaish tried to rally back but were unable to find the net.
The home side were nearly 3-0 behind, when Yayhe Kibe blazed his penalty over the crossbar, after his first attempt was over-ruled by the referee.
THE PENINSULA
