Al Sadd’s Ali Ferydoon scores their first goal against Al Khor during the first quarter-final of the Emir Cup at the Abdullah Bin Khalifa Stadium in Doha yesterday.
Doha: Even without three of their key players, Al Sadd proved to be too strong for Al Khor as the Wolves marched into the Emir Cup semi-finals with a 4-0 win yesterday.
At the Abdullah Bin Khalifa Stadium, Ali Ferydoon, Yasser Abubaker, Pedro Miguel and Akram Afif were on target as Al Sadd saw off the struggling Al Khor to make it to the semi-final in which they will meet QNB Stars League and Qatar Cup champions Al Duhail on May 11.
The Iranian forward Ferydoon drew the first blood for Al Sadd in the 37th minute.
Ferydoon picked up the ball from Afif who directed a free kick from 30 yards away and beat the Al Khor goalkeeper Khalifa Ababacar with a clever header at close range.
In the second half, Al Sadd players put more pressure on Al Khor. Yasser Abubakar made a perfect assist in the 53rd minute when his curling cross was headed into the net by Pedro to leave Al Khor players stunned. 2-0.
Abubaker accounted for the third goal for his team when he found a gap in the Al Khor defence in the 67th minute before Afif finished off in style with a brilliant kick from top of the box and the ball flew into the net, making it 4-0 in favour of Jesualdo Ferreira’s men.
Al Sadd were without their influential forward Algerian Jugurtha Hamroun, in-form Baghdad Bounedjah and Barca legend Xavi Hernandez. Hamroun had been ruled out of the match after picking up a ligament injury while training on Monday while Xavi and Bounedjah both missed the quarter-final, having being suspended following the Qatar Cup final against Al Duhail.
Later, at the same venue yesterday, Al Duhail laboured to a 1-0 win against Umm Salal.
The favourites, Al Duhail were offered a stiff resistance by Umm Salal throughout the game and neither of them succeeded in scoring in the first half. Both teams missed several chances to score. Finally, it was Al Duhail’s forward Almoez
Ali who broke the impasse when he picked up a pass inside the box and smashed a left footed kick to score the winner for Djamel Belmadi’s team.
Today, Al Gharafa will take on Mesaimeer in the their last-eight clash at the The Grand Hamad Stadium.
Giant-killers Mesaimeer made it to the last-eight when they defeated Al Sailiyah to continue their impressive run in the Emir Cup last week.
Al Gharafa finished fourth in the QNB Stars League to secure the automatic qualification into the quarter-final stage of the tournament.
The match will kick off at 5.15pm.
Later, at the same venue, Rodrigo Tabata-led Al Rayyan will vie for the remaining spot in the semi-finals when they take on the home team, Al Arabi.
