Michael Olunga’s 42nd minute diving header gave Al Duhail a 1-0 victory over Al Ahli and extended their lead at the top of Qatar Stars League at the Al Thumama Stadium on Saturday. The Red Knights bounced back from their surprise loss to Al Shahania in the previous round, as they opened up a four-point lead over Ahli and six points gap over arch rivals and defending champions Al Sadd.
Duhail’s goalkeeper Salah Zakaria was forced to make some fantastic saves in the early minutes, prominent among which was his seventh minute parrying of Oumar Sekou’s thunderbolt of a shot from the centre of the box.
Ten minutes into the game, the Olunga missed what should have been the opening goal with his header from the right side of the box going narrowly wide.
Duhail’s Frenchman Benjamin Bourigeaud forced a corner kick after stunning the palms of goalkeeper Marwan Badreldin with fierce shot in the 38th minute, but the eventual deadball situation did not produce the desired result.
While it seemed the match was heading towards a goalless half-time, Olunga’s produced a brilliant diving header in the 42nd minute from a cross by Edmilson Junior to put Duhail ahead.
A stunned Ahli put in desperate efforts to restore parity before halftime, but their attempts notwithstanding, Duhail took their lead into the break. Al Duhail came out of the dugout virtually on fire, and they could have added to their tally within five minutes of the second half if not for some poor finishing upfront.
The Brigadiers missed a chance of levelling up in the 65th minute, with Idrissa Doumbin’s final touch going narrowly wide after Sekou had brilliantly done most of the legwork in Duhail’s final third.
Despite Ahli’s attempt at getting the desperately needed equaliser, Duhail remained unyielding as they maintained their sole lead till the last kick of the thrilling match.
Earlier, Qatar SC scored a goal in each half to stun 10-man Al Wakrah 2-1 at the Suhaim Bin Hamad Stadium. Eisa Palangi (41st minute), and Khaled Mahmoudi (87th minute) scored for Qatar SC while Ricardo Gomes got Al Wakrah’s only goal in the 24th minute.
Al Wakrah’s Almahdi Ali Mukhtar was shown the red card in the 25th minute after he dangerously tackled Qatar SC’s Ahmed Mohamed Radwan from behind when the latter was running away with the ball down the left.
Wakrah slip from third to fifth with 11 points, while Qatar SC’s second win of the campaign took them out of relegation zone and into 10th place with seven points.
The first big action of the match came when Wakrah’s Abdelkarim Hassan made a high kick from the left for the ball to find Gomes, who stationed himself perfectly on right in front of the goal, to make a perfect header and provide his team the lead.
The very next minute, however, Wakrah suffered a jolt with Mukhtar receiving the marching orders. Fifteen minutes later, Qatar SC got the equaliser in equally spectacular style as Palangi grabbed a clearance long ball about 25 yards away left of the box to first make a run-in and strike a powerful kick which with its force beat Al Wakrah goalkeeper Mohammed Albakri in the right corner.
With the two sides locked 1-1, the second half saw more exciting action as first a Ben Malango header found the crossbar and later in the 68th minute the Wakrah goalkeeper made a good save. In the 84th minute Albakri again stopped a good kick from Gomes, and three minutes later the custodian held off a curling kick from Carlos Vinicius.
Qatar SC’s persistent efforts eventually paid off as Mahmoudi headed-in a fine corner kick from the right and the ball bounced before through the goalkeeper’s legs after he was unsighted by substitute Sebastian Soria, who was trying to get his foot to the ball.
There was more action in stoppage time as Carlos Vinicius cut off a defence cross to run in and make a strike but the ball found the bottom of the left goal post.
In the other match of the day, Baghdad Bounedjah scored a hat-trick as Al Shamal thrashed Al Arabi 5-2 at the Al Khor Stadium. Bounedjah scored in the 1st, 2nd +45 and 82nd minutes, while Mohamed Omar added a brace with strikes in the 20th and 31st minutes. Alaa Aldeen and Yazan al-Naimat scored for Al Arabi in the 7th and 16th minutes respectively.
Shamal regained its winning streak, moving up to sixth place with 10 points, while Al Arabi suffered its second loss and are ninth with seven points.