Al Duhail fight back to beat Al Khor

Doha, Qatar: Al Duhail fought back from two goals down to record a 3-2 victory over Al Khor and consolidate their top spot in the Qatar Stars League at the Al Khor Stadium on Friday.

Abdulla Moraisi (17th minute) and Ahmed Hammoudan (29th minute) put Al Khor ahead, but Al Duhail replied through Mohammed Muntari’s brace (43rd and 57th-minute penalty) and Yousef Msakni (66th).

Any ideas of an easy outing for the league leaders were quickly put to bed when Al Khor surprised them with an early goal on the counter-attack. Thiago Bezerra drifted past two markers down the right-hand side before laying off a perfect pass for Al Moraisi to excellently side-foot home from 10 yards out.

The lead was quickly doubled when Bezerra again chased down a long ball over the top before finding Hammoudan with a well-weighted pass across the box and the marksman calmly slotted past Amine Lecomte.

Hammoudan should have put his side three goals up when he rounded the keeper shortly after, but Amine made a superb recovery to block the striker’s shot.

This proved to be costly as Al Duhail soon got on the scoresheet. Paulo Edmilson whipped in an out-swinging corner from the right and Muntari rose the highest to power home a header.

Al Duhail were soon on level terms when they were awarded a penalty for a handball early in the second half and Muntari stepped up to convert the spot kick.

The turnaround was completed in the 66th minute when Msakni was quickest to react to a ball in the box, skipped past his marker and fired a hard shot across the face of the goal and into the net to complete the scoring.

The win took Al Duhail to 26 points from 10 matches, four ahead of second-placed Al Rayyan. 

Earlier, Al Wakrah also came from behind to secure big three points with a 2-1 victory against Al Ahli.

Al Wakrah’s goals were scored by Ali Karami in the 52nd minute and Mohamed Benyettou in the 88th minute. Al Ahli had taken the lead in the 16th minute through Nabil El Zahr.