Al Sailiya players celebrate a goal against Al Ahli during their QSL match at Hamad Bin Khalifa Stadium, yesterday. Picture by: Syed Omar
DOHA: Al Sailiya showed nerves of steel as they came from behind twice to secure an impressive 4-2 victory over Al Ahli in an absorbing battle at the QNB Stars League (QSL), yesterday.
The match at the Hamad Bin Khalifa Stadium yesterday saw all the goals being scored in the second half after a goalless first half.
The victory took Al Sailiya’s points tally to 12 points, along with Al Arabi who also have 12 points from 6 matches.
Al Sailiya got their goals from Majdi Siddiq (68th minute), Abdulqadir Adam (82nd), Abdulkareem Al Ali (87th) and Rachid Tiberkanine (92nd), while, Meshaal Abdulla scored both Al Ahli’s goals ( 54th and 74th minutes) in the match.
It was a tight contest right from the start as both Al Ahli and Al Sailiya looked for early goals. Al Ahli were equally impressive, and did not deserve to lose the match by this margin.
Despite repeated attacks from both the sides, the first half ended with a goal being scored.
Al Sailiya came closest to breaking the deadlock deep into the first half, with Abdulkareem firing narrowly wide from distance.
The match was completely different in the second half with Meshaal breaking the deadlock nine minutes into the second half. However, Majdi made it 1-1 for Al Sailiya on a stunning free-kick that bent around the wall and into the far corner.
It did not take long for Al Ahli to get their noses in front again with, Mohsine Moutaouli sending another through ball in to Meshaal who dispatched his second of the evening.
The real turning point came in the 82nd minute when Al Sailiya were awarded a penalty, despite the protests from the visiting side, which Abdulqadir stepped up to bring the scores level.
The moment of the night was saved until injury time when Abdulqadir fed Tiberkanine on the edge of the area, with the Moroccan teeing the ball up on his right foot before striking a beautiful volley to seal all three points.
In other match at Al Khor Stadium, Umm Salal edged out Al Kharaitiyat 2-1 to claim full points. Umm Salal have now secured 10 points from six matches while Al Kharaitiyat are yet to open their account after losing all their six matches in the league so far.
