Al Duhail ease past Al Sailiya to reach semis

Former champions Al Duhail on Sunday beat Al Sailiya 4-1 to reach the semi-finals of the Amir Cup, the country’s most popular football tournament. In the day’s other quarter-final, Al Gharafa edged Qatar SC 2-1 at Grand Hamad Stadium to reach the last-four. Toby Alderweireld opened the scoring for Al Duhail in the 12th minute. His teammate Ismail Mohamed doubled the lead in the 34th minute. Al Sailiya’s Walter Bwalya reduced the deficit in the 54th minute but three minutes later Abdelrahma Mustafa found the net for Al Duhail. Qatar national team player Karim Boudiaf hammered in the fourth goal (76th minute) as Al Duhail completed their resounding win. For Al Gharafa, Amro Surag scored the first goal in the 24th minute but Javi Martinez produced the equaliser for Qatar SC in the 57th minute. Sofiane Hanni managed the winning goal seven minutes later. Scorer of the second goal, Mohamed of Al Duhail said after the match: “I say hard luck to Al Sailiya but we played well. Once we scored the second goal, we knew we were on our way. We fought hard until the last minute. Thank God we reached our target.”He added: “We are ready for Al Sadd now. We will give our best but first we will rest and recover and come back with another strategy. This is a big tournament and we want to do well. That goes without saying. We will continue to play good football. Al Sadd are a solid side but we will come prepared. We are focused on winning the Cup.”Abdullah Mahmood of Al Sailiya said after the match: “They played better football. Their football was better than ours. It was a good tournament for us. We couldn’t get past this match. We will come prepared in the next season. We all worked hard.”Alderweireld jumped high on a corner kick to deflect the ball home from close range as Al Duhail opened the scoring. Mohamed, after a cross from the midfield, hoodwinked his marker and slipped into the Al Sailiya box. Al Sailiya keeper stepped out to kill the move but Mohamed smartly tapped the ball into the net from close range. A defensive error allowed Al Sailiya to score their first and only goal when Bwalya tapped the ball into the net following a short cross inside the Al Duhail box. Al Duhail’s Moustafa – on the edge of the Al Sailiya box – unleashed a powerful left-footed drive that beat the Al Sailiya keeper Abdul Rahman Abdul Aziz in the 57th minute. Boudiaf rounded off Al Duhail’s dominant show when he headed home from close range off a corner kick by jumping high for the header. For Al Gharafa, Suraj scored the first goal with a superb chip over Qatar SC keeper for his side’s first goal. Martinez headed home for Qatar SC’s equaliser close to the hour-mark. However, Hanni found the net for Al Gharafa with a close-range strike inside the Qatar SC box for the match winning goal.