(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Al Wakrah handed out Al Sadd a 5-0 thrashing to top the Group A in the Ooredoo Cup at the Qatar SC Stadium yesterday. It was Al Wakrah's third win from five matches as they topped the group with 11 points. Sadd, who fielded mostly youngsters yesterday, remained on seven points in fourth placed. Both teams qualified for the knockout quarter-finals.
Cristian Ceballos (third-minute penalty), Mohamed Benyettou (ninth and 59th minutes), Ousmane Coulibaly (18th minute) and Isaias Sanchez (56th minute) scored the goals. Wakrah hit the ground running by opening the scoring early. Al Sadd's Mahmoudsafe Korayem was guilty of a rough tackle on Ceballos inside his own box. The referee pointed to the spot and Ceballos easily scored off the penalty kick.
Wakrah doubled their lead when Benyettou grabbed a loose ball on the edge of Al Sadd box and quickly fired a powerful shot that bounced in front of goalkeeper Jehad Mohamed. The ball hit the keeper's right hand and crashed into the net. VAR was referred to check whether Wakrah's Jassim a-Jalabi was off-side before the goal was confirmed. Wakrah went 3-0 up when Coulibaly produced a classy snap-header off a corner kick. Despite pressure from an Al Sadd defender, Coulibaly smartly deflected the ball into the net giving, keeper Jehad no chance to stop the ball.
In the last seven minutes of first half, Wakrah's Omar Ali twice missed relatively easy chances to score. On the first occasion, he had only defender Talal Abdulla barely two metres away on the goalline to beat and moments later the Sadd keeper blocked his header from close range.
After the break, Al Wakrah continued their goal-scoring act. Isaias scored their fourth goal with a powerful strike from just outside the Al Sadd box. That was followed by Benyettou's second goal of the match.
Earlier, Al Khor thrashed Al Duhail 6-0 win at the Al Khor Stadium. It was Al Khor's third win and they finished with a tally of nine points to qualify for the knockout quarter-finals as the second team from the group. Duhail bowed out of the tournament as the last team in the group with three points. Khaled Radwan (22nd minute), Yuki Kobayashi (38th minute), Abdulla Mubarak (51st minute) and Leonardo De Souza (56th, 65th-min penalty and 90+4) were the scorers. De Souza wasted an easy chance to head home from close range early on. He was beaten to the ball by Duhail goalkeeper Ahmed Gamal, who punched the ball with a short jump to kill the move.
Yuki then curled in a spectacular left-footed drive that narrowly missed the goalpost to the right of Al Duhail goalkeeper.
Khor opened the scoring when Khaled headed home off a corner kick. They jumped to a 2-0 lead when Yuki volleyed home off a long loopy shot that crashed into the net.
Six minutes into the second half, Khor grabbed their third goal when Abdulla Mubarak was quick to pounce on a loose ball that the keeper failed to grab after a powerful shot by De Souza and the former clamly slotted the ball into the net.
De Souza added his second of the match when he scored off a penalty kick. Duhail's Faisal al-Mansoori brought down Ahmad Hassan al-Mohannadi and referee Nayef al-Qadiri awarded a penalty, which was converted by De Souza. The Brazilian added one more deep into the game to complete a hat-trick.
Meanwhile, Sailiya defeated Qatar SC 1-0 to seal a place in the last eight. A last-gasp goal by substitute striker Abdulqadir Ilyas (90+5) did the trick for Sailiya, who reached the knockouts quarter-finals as the third-placed team with eight points. Qatar SC exited the competition with four points.
Both teams were reduced to 10 men in the 49th minute when referee Khamis al-Marri red-carded Qatar SC captain Mohamed Salem and Sailiya's Ahmed al-Minhali for a tussle that followed a tackle.
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