Al Duhail fight back to beat Umm Salal, extend lead

Al Duhail consolidated their lead in the Qatar Stars League after defeating Umm Salal 2-1 at the Grand Hamad Stadium on Friday. The Red Knights scored on either side of half-time, with Ismail Mohammed (39th minute) and Abdullah al-Ahrak (89th minute) scoring for the winners after Oussama Tannane had given The Orange Fortress the lead in the 36th minute.
Al Duhail now have to 32 points, four more than defending champions Al Sadd, Al Gharafa and Al Ahli, who are all on 28 points. Umm Salal remained 10th on 14 points. Al Duhail had the first clear-cut chance of the encounter in the seventh minute with Almoez Ali connecting perfectly with a cross from Edmilson Junior following a corner kick, but the forward’s header from the centre of the box went a bit high and wide to the left. Four minutes later, the Qatar international again rattled the bar with a right-footed shot from the right side of the six-yard box from an inch-perfect cross by Homam al-Ameen.
Umm Salal continued to soak up the pressure from the away team while breaking forward occasionally, and they could have gotten the opener in the 31st minute had Marouan Louadni been more precise with his header that came from an assist by Tannane following a corner kick.
Five minutes later, it was Tannane’s name that came on the lips of every Umm Salal fan as the Moroccan international opened the scoring in the exciting match after firing home a thunderbolt of a shot from 25 yards out that stunned not just the goalkeeper Salah Zakaria but the entire field.
Jolted by the turn of events, Al Duhail went in search of an immediate remedy and they got their desires three minutes later when an unmarked Ismail Mohammed connected well with a diagonal cross by Homam to tap into an almost empty net to make things even between the two sides going into the dugout.
A more determined Al Duhail came out of the dugout for the concluding half of the match and their pressure on Umm Salal went a notch up. Still, despite their several voyages into the opponent box, the resistance from Umm Salal’s defence stood rock-solid. At the same time, goalkeeper Louay Ashour was also outstanding, making several commendable saves to the frustration of their opponents.
Just while the match was heading for a stalemate, al-Ahrak stepped up one minute into stoppage time with his right-footed shot from the centre of the box that sailed straight into the top right-hand corner of Umm Salal’s goal to ensure maximum points for the league leaders.

Koroma strikes as Shahania edge Wakrah
Al Shahania beat Al Wakrah 1-0 in a highly-entertaining match at the Stadium 974. The winning strike for Al Shahania came through Alhassan Koroma in 45+1 minute and who struck after being provided with a beautiful cross by Under-21 player Moaz Tawhed Elwadia.
While Al Wakrah tried hard to match up to the rivals and made frantic efforts towards the end, they could not find the equalizer.
The win saw Al Shahania gain the three valuable points to be on 17 points, while Al Wakrah stayed on 17 points. The match began on a fast note and in the 10th minute, Al Shahania thought that they had gained lead when a Koroma through ball had Lotfi Madjer sprinting down the left to strike into the far corner of the net. The joy was however short lived as the flag was up signalling off-side.
In the 16th minute, Al Wakrah almost made the breakthrough as Almahdi Ali leapt to head a corner kick, but the ball just missed the left post.
The exchanges continued at both ends for long before Al Shahania forced their way with Elwadia weaving his way past three Al Wakrah defenders from the right, just outside the box, to set up an unmarked Koroma with a superb parallel cross. Koroma ran in and connected with his left foot and shot into the right corner.
Soon after resumption of play in the second half, Elwadia again made a dash from the right and sent the ball across for Majder, who connected but the ball went wide off the right post.
Just on the hour mark, an Al Wakrah free-kick taken by Abdelkarim Hassan saw Al Shahania survive a scare as Andreas van Beek headed the ball just over his own goal.
Minutes later, Hassan was back in the act and this time from a set piece. The burly player broke past Al Shahania wall but his rasping shot was brilliantly blocked by goalkeeper Shehab Mamdouh Ellethy, who dived to his right. There was another chance on the rebound but Hamdy Fathy overshot.
Towards the end, Al Wakrah put a lot of pressure on their rivals launching repeated and quick attacks, with Ellethy having to do more work under the bar.
In the first minute of added time, Al Shahania hit back winning the ball from Al Wakrah and Pelle van Amersfoort beat Hassan inside the box to score. The wild celebrations of the players and the fans alike were soon muted as the referee ruled out the goal after VAR.