DOHA KHALFAN IBRAHIM netted a brilliant brace as Al Sadd consolidated its position at the top of the Qatar Stars League with an impressive 3-1 home victory over El Jaish on Saturday.
Coached by Hussein Amute, Al Sadd won its fifth straight match to take its points haul to 15. With the defeat, Jaish stays in seventh place with two wins, three losses from five matches.
It was a big day today in the QSL with all the 12 teams in action.
Bottom-placed Al Sailiya pulled off the biggest upset, beating Al Rayyan 4-1. Defending champion Lekhwiya continued its resurgence under Belgian coach Eric Gerets with a 2-1 victory over Al Khor at its home turf. Issiar Dia and Nam Tae Hee were the scorers for Lekhwiya, while Ibrahim Amwal’s stunning goal was not enough to save the day for Khor.
Al Arabi drew goalless with Al Khairatiyat and Al Wakrah moved to the second place in the table with 0-0 draw with Qatar Sports Club.
Umm Salal forced Gharafa to 1- 1 draw at the Al Gharafa Stadium, leaving the former QSL champion in mid-table with a paltry six points.
With Raul - the former Real Madrid star - marshaling his troops in the midfield and showing good form, Al Sadd has hardly put a foot wrong in the on-going season.
Al Sadd’s Khalfan Ibrahim, who last week fired a hat-trick against Al Sailiya to guide his team to a convincing 4-1 win, scored two quick fire goals within five minutes to cancel Jaish’s lead in the opening half.
Marconi Amaral scored the opening goal for Jaish, heading the ball powerfully off a Karim Ziani corner kick to beat Mohamed Saqr in the 16th minute.
In the 40th minute, Khalfan Ibrahim equalised with a powerful shot after a perfect cross from Nadir Belhadj, the inviting cross evaded the Jaish defenders easily and reached Khalfan easily, who fired the ball past goalkeeper Ivanildo.
In the first minute of extra time, Khalfan scored the second goal of the match from a penalty kick after Raul, who was tripped in the penalty area by Khaled Abdel Raouf.
The former Asian player of the year Khalfan converted the resultant kick to take his goal haul to five from five matches.
Before Khalfan’s brace, Khaled Abdel should have leveled the score in the 35th minute but his effort from two yards hit the bar.
Jaish striker Abdulkadir Ilyas dazzled his way inside the Sadd box and rifled a shot that goalkeeper Mohamed saved but Khaled failed to put over the rebound.
In the second half, Jaish made several incursions into the Al Sadd box but its defender stood their ground to avert any danger.
Mohammed el Sayed replaced Wagner Ribeiro but it failed to give the much-needed lift to the Army side.
With a few minutes left in the match, Karim Ziani had a glorious chance to score from outside the box but his shot was inches away, to the relief of the Sadd team and fans.
Mammadou Niang killed off any fighting spirit left in the Army side when he scored an individual goal in the 87th minute. The Senegalese striker received a long ball from goalkeeper Saqr inside the Jaish area and outwitted Marconi and Khaled, before firing a shot from his left foot that deflected off Marconi to beat Ivanildo.
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