Qatar- Second half brilliance sees Lekhwiya hammer Al Gharafa 4 0

12/22/2015 4:08:25 PM

(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Lekhwiya’s Youssef Msakni and Yasin Chikhaoui (right) of Al Gharafa vie for the ball possession during their Qatar Stars League (QSL) match at Al Ahli Stadium yesterday. RIGHT: El Jaish’s Abderrazzaq (left) in action against Al Ahli’s Abdul Ghafoor Abdullah during their QSL match at Al Ahli Stadium yesterday. Pics: Abdul Basit

DOHA: Qatar Stars League (QSL) defending champions Lekhwiya underlined their intentions with their sixth successive win by hammering Al Gharafa 4-0 yesterday.

Lekhwiya coached by Djamel Belmadi produced a stirring second-half performance to outclass Al Gharafa and extend their winning run.

All goals were scored in the second half within a 25-minute interval with Youssef Msakni helping himself to a brace.

It wasn’t easy going for the defending champions at Hamad bin Khalifa Stadium in this ‘Match of the Week’ clash.

The first half was a scrappy affair with neither team able to dominate proceedings.

The teams went into the break with a total of six attempts of goal between them.

But things changed dramatically in the second half. It began on a sedate note. But in the 55th minute Lekhwiya mounted a counter attack through their twinkle-toed foreign import Vladimir Weiss.

The Slovakian winger ran through the centre with the ball and delivered a slick pass to Ismail Mohamed who complemented the move with an effective finish that saw his team grab the lead.

In the 67th minute reliable Nam Tae-Hee danced his way inside the box and then crossed to Msakni who headed it in for his first goal of the match.

Ten minutes later the South Korean midfielder produced a great shot and saw the ball fly into the top corner of the goal.

Al Gharafa ‘keeper Abdulla could only stand and watch the ball go in. Three minutes later in the 80th minute Lekhwiya’s Karim Boudiaf opened up Al Gharafa with a through pass.

Msakni got to the end of it and though his first attempt was saved by Abdulla the Tunisian was able to find the back of the net with his second.

It will be a confidence-boosting win for the defending champions especially considering how hard Al Gharafa made them work for this win.

In other match hosts Al Wakrah rubbed salt into Al Arabi wounds by beating the Doha giants 1-0 in their Qatar Stars League (QSL) clash.

A first-half goal by Abdul Rahiman Hussain (10th minute) was enough for hosts Al Wakrah to beat Al Arabi aiming to remain in the top four of QSL.

By virtue of the loss yesterday Al Arabi have lost two successive games. Last week Al Sailiya beat Al Arabi.

Earlier a strike by Abderrazzaq Hamedallah was enough for El Jaish to beat Al Ahli in a round 14 clash at Al Ahli Stadium.

Hamedallah fired home the match-winning in the 4th minute of the clash that has allowed El Jaish to leapfrog over Al Sadd into second place on the Qatar Stars League (QSL) points table.

El Jaish are now behind Al Rayyan (39 points) after 14 matches. Al Ahli placed 11th have a tally of just 14 points.

QSL action will resume on January 2 2016 after ten-day winter break.

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