(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Al Sadd secured their semi-final berth in the Emir Cup after three second half goals gave them an easy 3-1 win over Al Khor yesterday.
The Qatar giants struck through Lee Jung-soo, Hassan al-Haydos and Grafite to stay on course for their 15th Emir Cup title after Julio Cesar had put Al Khor ahead with an 18th minute goal.
Although Al Khor bristled with energy and had their more accomplished rivals in all sorts of trouble in the first half, they ran out of steam later to allow the defending champions a rather comfortable passage to the last four stage.
Al Khor, the 2007 runners-up € they were beaten by Al Sadd 5-4 on penalties € started off well, with their Brazilian troika of Madson and Cesar and Marco Antonio probing deep and causing a few anxious moments for goalkeeper Sadd al-Sheeb.
Overconfidence perhaps got the better of Al Sadd as they failed to take their rivals seriously in the beginning before Cesar's goal stung them out of their stupor.
A move on the right flank saw the ball fall into the path of Antonio on the right edge of the penalty area and the Brazilian produced a measured chip for Cesar to rise above the defence and head home.
Al Khor managed to stave off Al Sadd's aggression in the remainder of the first half, but they couldn't hold on to their advantage for long.
Barely had three minutes elapsed in the second half when Al Sadd cancelled out their lead when Lee's header hit the upright and dropped a couple of inches behind the line.
And although the Al Khor goalkeeper Baba Jibril leapt to pouch the ball and pretended he had collected it on the line, the goal was ruled fair by the referee.
Al Sadd's al-Haydos then missed a chance to put his side ahead when he failed to reach a cross on time, but made amends in the 67th minute by scoring from the penalty spot after Hamza Sanhaji was brought down by Musaab Abdulmajeed.
Al Khor were well and truly deflated at this stage and it reflected in their negative body language.
With barely a couple of minutes remaining in the match, Al Sadd found their third goal after Ali Asadallah made short work of the defence and put Grafite through with an easy pass. The Brazilian just had goalkeeper Jibril to beat and he did that effortlessly to finish off the match.
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