Defending champions Umm Salal beat Al Rayyan 2-0 at the Grand Hamad Stadium yesterday to enter the semi-finals of QSL Cup. Marouane Louadni (43rd minute) and Victor Lekhal (71st minute) headed a goal each for the winners.
Umm Salal will meet Al Arabi, who booked their last four spot with a convincing 3-0 win over Al Shamal. In the other semis, Al Duhail will take on Al Wakrah.
The match was tight-fisted, especially for most part of the opening half, and Umm Salal’s solid defence dashed Al Rayyan’s hopes of making any breakthrough.
Al Rayyan were left frustrated despite repeated attempts including a potential one in the 31st minute when Khaled Ali Binsabaa had a great chance to strike after he broke into the danger zone following a long charge but his kick was cut off by a chasing Umm Salal defender.
The Barzan’s Falcons hit back just before the half time whistle as Louadni headed home a fine curling ball off a free-kick taken (from about 10 yards away from the box) by Naim Abdulrazaq al-Aidouni.
Al Rayyan, in the second half too, pushed hard to find the equaliser but they lacked cohesion and many crosses in front of the goal went abegging with Umm Salal goalkeeper Landing Badji not having much to do. In contrast, Al Rayyan custodian Fahad Younis Baker had a field day and made umpteen saves for his team flying from one corner of the goal post to another.
Despite the goalie’s tight vigil, Umm Salal delivered a second knock-out blow as unmarked captain Lekhal headed a fine long ball from Ali Said al-Muhannadi to dash Al Rayyan hopes of a comeback.
Earlier, Al Arabi scored a convincing 3-0 win over Al Shamal at the Thani Bin Jassim Stadium. Isaac Lihadji (54th minute), Youssef Msakni (57th minute), and Ghanim al-Sulaiti (73rd minute) were the goal-scorers for The Dream Team which took a while to fire against a hopeful Al Shamal side who paid the price for missing out on chances of gaining early lead.
Al Shamal had succeeded in foiling Al Arabi’s attempts in the opening half but they missed out on two good chances of their own.
In the 36th minute, Younes El Hannach after beating defenders provided a superb pass but Suhaib Gannan, who was in great position, missed being late in making the kick.
In the 52nd minute, Al Shamal’s Mohamed Musa made a dipping header but it went just wide right of the post, after an indirect corner kick.
Two minutes later, Al Arabi’s Lihadji seized the chance to produce a solid left-foot strike that went just over the stretched hands of Al Shamal goalkeeper Oumar Barry for a spectacular goal.
With the lead gained, Al Arabi continued to attack and Msakni made the most of a through ball, sent by Rodriguez Sanchez from the right, to make the score 2-0.
Al Arabi’s third goal came after some exciting action in the rival ‘D’. Msakni battled on the goal-line to keep the ball in play before Ahmed Alaaeldin made a flying header but the ball hit the post and came back for al-Sulaiti to slam it back in.