Doha: Al Wakrah handed an eighth Qatar Stars League (QSL) defeat to Mesaimeer when they thrashed the new-comers 4-1 in Round 9, yesterday at Al Gharafa Stadium.
Argentine striker Jorge Sebastian Saez was the star for the winners with a hat-trick as Al Wakrah showed no signs of rustiness after the QSL resumed following a two-week break.
Saez gave Al Wakrah an early breakthrough when he scored in the sixth minute.
It appeared that Al Wakrah will extend their lead soon but Al Mesaimeer defenders produced a defiant show to avoid conceding further goals in the first half.
Al Wakrah returned in the second with an even aggressive display to score three more goals in the final session.
The 30-year old Saez, completed his hat-trick with strikes in 48th and 74th minute of the match.
Erivelto Emiliano Silva got the consolation goal for Mesaimeer in the next minute before Mohsine Moutaouali completed the 4-1 score-line with a goal, ten minutes before the real time ended.
The other match at the same venue earlier on the day saw Umm Salal snatching a draw against Al Ahli in the final moments of the game.
Ivory Coast’s Yannick Anister Latte secured a point for Umm Salal by scoring a goal in the 88th minute after his side trailed in the best part of the match.
Al Ahli took the lead in the first half through captain Mashel Abdulla who scored in the 31st minute.
Today’s matches will see Al Sailiya in action against Al Al Gharafa.
In other match of the day, second-placed El Jaish will take on Al Arabi at the Al Arabi Stadium.
Meanwhile, Al Sailiya coach Sami Trabelsi hoped his team will give an improved show after the two-week break.
“The break was beneficial for us. We tried to correct some problems, recover our injured players and also create cohesion between the players,” he said.
“We are playing a team with a winning mentality. Gharafa are now in a difficult situation but they know how to take points from games and how to finish games. We have the ambition to take the maximum points from the next five games in order to finish the first half of the season in a good way,” added the coach.
“This is our problem for the last two seasons. We start every season with new players in defence. These players need time to “gel and get team harmony working properly,” he said.
“In the two games against Jaish and Rayyan we conceded eight goals. But after that we have conceded one or two goals in games. We haven’t conceded goals because of a bad defensive set up or strategy. It was individual mistakes that cost us.”
Al Sailiya coach, however expressed discontent on performance of his foreign players.
“I am not satisfied with the performance of my foreign players. We are expecting more from them. When a foreign player comes to Qatar, he needs time to adapt but he can’t take too long. We are trying to evaluate and get our foreign players to contribute more, because we really need them to step up now,” he said.
Al Gharaffa on Thursday fired Brazilian coach Pericles Chamusca after his team’s poor form in the QSL.
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