Al Rayyan captain Rodrigo Tabata (centre) shakes hands with Lucca Borges as they celebrate a goal against Al Sadd during their QSL Cup match yesterday.
Doha: Brazilian forward Lucca Borges yesterday scored a hat-trick as Al Rayyan took sweet revenge against arch-rivals Al Sadd with a crushing 8-0 win in their QSL Cup second round match.
In their ‘Qatar Clasico’ clash in the QNB Stars League (QSL) last month, Al Sadd had defeated Al Rayyan 5-0 at Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium but Al Rayyan yesterday produced a perfect reply at the Al Duhail Stadium.
Lucca scored in the 5th, 57th and 71st minutes as a brace by skipper Rodrigo Tabata (36 and 41) and goals by Juma Al Alawi (54), Ahmad Mohamed Al Sayyid (61) and Aldoukali Side Al Baoure (71) sealed what was one of the biggest wins by Al Rayyan against their arch-rivals.
The Wolves fielded a youthful side while Al Rayyan decided to go full throttle.
Al Sadd missed the services of their regular skipper and Barca legend Xavi Hernandez and ‘goal machine’, Algerian Baghdad Bounedjah. They were also without key players Akram Afif and Hassan Al Haydos who are on duty for the national side.
In yesterday’s blockbuster, Al Rayyan took an early lead through Lucca who struck in the fifth minute off a corner kick.
Mousa Haroun tried for the header and missed, but Borges made no mistake to score his first goal in the tournament.
Soon, Al Sadd suffered a huge blow when they were reduced to 10 men.
In the 35th minute, Aladeen Suleiman was shown the red card by referee Nayef Mohamed Al Kadiri following a foul play and skipper Tabata made the best out of his opportunity from the penalty spot to make it 2-0 in favour of Al Rayyan. The 37-year-old veteran once again proved that he is one of Al Rayyan’s biggest assets when he added one more goal to their account before the half time whistle.
Just five minutes later, Tabata surprised everyone with a brilliant long-range kick from the edge of the centre circle to beat the Al Sadd goalkeeper Jehad Mohammad Hudib.
Al Rayyan continued to rub more salt on Al Sadd’s wounds upon their return from the break with back to back goals on quick successions.
In the 54th minute, Al Alawi made it 4-0, beating the young Al Sadd goalkeeper with a close range kick.
Three minutes later, Abdulrahman Mohammed Al Harazi shot at the goal and the goalkeeper deflected the ball, just to see Lucca scoring their fifth goal with an acrobatic kick.
After four more minutes of play, Ahmad Mohamed Al Sayyid made it 5-0 in same style.
The Brazilian forward continued to enjoy a brilliant game and completed his hat-trick, taking their score to 7-0.
Substitute Al Baoure added the finishing touches to one of Al Rayyan’s biggest wins over Al Sadd through a nicely curled shot into the net from the right corner of the penalty area. Elsewhere, yesterday, Ali Fereydoun and Meshal Abdulla were on target as Al Ahli beat Al Sailiya 2-0 at the Qatar SC Stadium.
In yesterday’s late Group B match, Al Khor bagged maximum points after overcoming Al Shahania 2-1.
