Doha: Football giants Lekhwiya opened their title-defence at the Qatar Stars League (QSL) with an emphatic 3-1 win over Qatar SC, thanks to a brace by experienced midfielder Youssef Msakani at the Lekhwiya Stadium, yesterday.
The defending champions who returned to QSL after suffering defeat against Saudi Arabia’s Al Hilal in the AFC Champions League quarter-finals, got first half scare when Mohammaed Omar Saeed took Qatar SC by scoring a goal in the 30th minute.
However, after ten minutes of attacking football, Lekhwiya managed to pull a leveller through Msakani.
The second half saw some good display of attacking football from both sides but it was Lekhwiya who earned the timely lead, with seasoned Slovakian Vadimir Weiss giving the breakthrough in the 81st minute.
Msakani took advantage of vulnerable Qatar SC’s defense in the injury time, scoring the last gasp goal seal his brace and a 3-1 victory for the defending champions.
Meanwhile, Al Arabi registered their second win of the season as they defeated Al Khor 1-0 at the Grand Hamad Stadium.
Striker Yousef Ahmed scored the only goal of the match to secure three valuable points for Arabi.
The spotlight certainly is on Arabi this season since bringing in Gianfranco Zola as head coach and so far the Italian has managed to get the best out of his side with two wins from two games.
During the pre-match press conferences, the Italian reiterated that resurrecting Arabi and getting them back to where they belong is his primary objective. But he also requested patience to be afforded to him because the revival won’t happen overnight.
The performance against Khor will help Arabi fans believe in his philosophy that much more as the Dream Team looked more composed and worked as a team for large parts of the game.
There was just one goal and that came early in the match – in the 24th minute. Midfielder Ali Jasemi sent a lob down the flank on the right for Yousef Ahmed.
Al Khor defender Lee Yong couldn’t clear the ball and Yousef ran around him to slot the ball past the onrushing keeper.
It wasn’t the most powerful of shots as Yousef didn’t connect properly. The ball seemed to take an age to bobble over the line and defender Naif al?Buriki attempted a last ditch clearance but the ball had already crossed the line.
Possession was almost even with Arabi edging it slightly and created more chances. Tonight’s Zola’s mend deserved the victory after putting a hard shirt.
There will be tougher challenges ahead and Zola might worry with his team’s low number of goals.
Khor, on the other hand, have now lost both of their games.
They have been defeated by opponents who could be rated as stronger than them.
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