Afif Orchestrates Al Sadd's Victory Over Al Shahania

(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Akram Afif excelled with three assists as Al Sadd scored an exciting 4-2 win over Al Shahania in the Qatar Stars League at the Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium on Friday.
While The Wolves began sprightly scoring three goals in the first half, Al Shahania hit back with two in the second half as Alhassan Koroma scored a brace, but an own goal cost them dear.
For Al Sadd, the goals came from Moustafa Tarek Mashal (2nd minute), Rafa Mujica (19th minute), Cristo Gonzalez (23rd minute) and from Pelle van Amersfoort (Own Goal – 78th minute). For Al Shahania, Koroma scored in the 54th and 89th minutes of the match.
The win was defending champions Al Sadd's fourth of the league this season and pitchforked them into the third place in the rankings with 12 points as they cut Al Duhail lead to three points. Duhail are in action when they take on second-placed Al Ahli in a crucial clash. Meanwhile, Shahania with a fourth loss, remain in tenth place with five points.
Sadd defender Ahmed Suhail said it was a deserved win for his side.“We played a good game and were the better side during the first half, managing to score three early goals which allowed us to play more comfortably. The dip in performance in the second half was somewhat natural, but we succeeded in securing the win with four goals. Certainly, this victory gives us a morale boost to keep improving, stay on the same path, and achieve more wins both domestically and in Asia,” he said.
The first three of Al Sadd's goals were all set up by the mercurial Afif. In the first, he grabbed a defensive rebound from the right to send the ball across to Moustafa at far left to score the opening goal. In the next one, Afif initiated the move in the middle before running down the left to set up Mujica with a through ball to score gleefully.
Minutes later, Afif collected a back flip from Mujica to move left and provide Gonzalez with a perfect ball to strike the third goal from the centre for The Wolves. Koroma gave Al Shahania hope when he first made the most of a fine assist from Mohamed Bader Sayyar, who ran down deep before moving the ball back to Koroma to sweep a left footer into the net (1-3).
An over-zealous Al Shahania then saw a reversal as Pelle van Amersfoort headed an Al Sadd corner kick into his own goal (1-4). Koroma provided some heal minutes later as he grabbed substitute Abdulrahman Mosed's long cross to strike hard and his shot went past the hands of goalkeeper Saad Al Sheeb.
There were many hits and misses for both sides during the match. An Afif header went past the left post early in the first half while a Hashim Ali threatening kick was stopped by Al Shahania goalkeeper Shehab Ellethy. Later, a Mohammad Ibrahim header for Al Shahania was pushed over by Al Sheeb. He also saved a face to face shot and another from some distance from Amersfoort, denying Al Shahania.
Earlier, Al Rayyan scored a hard-fought 2-1 win over Al Khor at the Al Khor Stadium. The goals for Al Rayyan came through Yohan Boli (Own Goal – fifth minute) and Roger Guedes (82nd minute), while Boli pulled one back for Al Khor (10th minute).
It was the third win of the league for Al Rayyan, which took them to seventh place with nine points, while Al Khor remain bottom on three points.
Al Khor suffered a setback right at the start when Boli trying to cut off a Gabriel Pereira cross from the right deflected the ball into his own goal. Boli, the Ivory Coast international, however, soon made amends as he headed a Sofiane Hanni corner kick home drawing parity for his side much to the joy of the team's fans at the stadium.
With scores levelled, tussle began to regain lead. In the 25th minute, Al Rayyan had a fine opportunity when following a top of the box battle the ball went to an unmarked Achraf Bencharki, stationed on the left but his kick saw the ball go left off the left post.
The deadlock continued till late in the second session with both teams trying to break the shackles. Al Rayyan eventually succeeded as Bencharki made a high ball cross from the right, and the ball beat the stretched leg of Al Khor's Ruben Semedo to reach Guedes who slotted it in neatly.
The breakthrough lifted Al Rayyan spirits and left Al Khor still searching for their maiden win in the league championship. Al Khor did try hard to find the equalizer a second time but could not succeed. When a kick inside the danger area was cut off by an Al Rayyan defender's shoulder they also appealed hard to the referee, but it was ruled out.
Al Khor striker Yohan Boli expressed his regret over the team's loss.“We performed well in the match against Al Rayyan, but this performance was not enough for us to come out with a victory and collect the three points that were important for us,” he said.“We know that our position is difficult in the competition as we are in last place, but we will do our best in the upcoming rounds to improve our position and get a boost to move forward in the standings,” Boli added.
He continued: We have good players, but we lack some luck in some matches to advance further in the competition and achieve our goal of remaining in the Ooredoo Stars League at the end of the season. The journey is still long, but I trust Al Khor's ability to achieve this.
In the other match on Friday, Al Gharafa beat Umm Salal 3-1 at the Thani Bin Jassim Stadium. Antonio Mance put Umm Salal ahead in the 49th minute, but Gharafa struck back as Joselu converted a penalty in the 62nd minute. Ferjani Sassi added a second in 88th minute, while Jamal Hamad Mayor put the game to bed in the last minute of stoppage time. Gharafa are fifth with 11 points, while Umm Salal are a place below with 10 points.

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