Al Gharafa blank Al Arabi to get back to winning ways
Doha: Al Gharafa ended their three-match losing streak in style, with a 3-0 victory against Al Arabi in the QNB Stars League on Friday.
Gharafa were going through a tough phase and with their captain Wesley Sneijder and Diego Amado they had disaster staring at them in the face as they took on a tricky Arabi side.
But the likes of Vladimir Weiss, Abdulaziz Hatem, and Ahmed Alaaeldin found their touch to hand Gharafa a surprisingly easy victory.
The victory to Gharafa’s tally to 10 points even though they are still seventh, two behind sixth-placed Arabi.
Hatem was the early tormenter in chief and whenever he had the ball in his left foot, Arabi's defence was in danger.
He started his reign in the 13th minute when he bent home a left-footed free-kick from just outside the area, beating Arabi goalkeeper Masoud Zarayi at the near post to give Gharafa the lead.
Five minutes later, another free-kick from almost the same position nearly doubled Gharafa’s lead. Hatem this time opted to whip the ball towards the far post and although it eluded the Arabi defense, Mehdi Taremi and Saied Eisa came in each other’s way and none got a proper connection.
Hatem’s free-kick once more proved dangerous and had Alaaeldin been able to direct his header to a couple of feet either side of the keeper it would have been a different outcome.
However, it didn’t take long for Gharafa to score again as determined pressing by Weiss and Alaaeldin forced a mistake from Arabi defender Yasin Dorzadeh, whose back pass for Zarayi was well short.
Alaaeldin reached it before Zarayi, who ended up fouling the Gharafa striker, prompting referee Khamis Mohammed to point to the spot.
Alaaeldin converted the penalty with ease to make it 2-0 in the 40th.
Soon it was 3-0, with Alaaeldin again finding the mark right before half-time.
The Qatar striker, who has not got many opportunities this season, linked up beautifully with Taremi and held off the challenge of Arabi defender Mohamed Salem before beating Zarayi with a splendid left-footer.
Arabi brought in Fahad Khalfan in place of Mailson, who was disappointing, but they still failed to make any clear-cut inroads into Gharafa defence.
Salem’s cross soon after the hour mark, after some adventurous attacking play from central defender Fathi, was deep and eluded Gharafa defence, however, Youseif Ramadan’s header was wayward.
A few minutes later Arabi had another half chance when Fathi’s through pass found Mohamed Salah, who hurried with his effort and hit straight at Gharafa goalkeeper Youssef Hassan.
With three goals to the good and the game well in their pocket, Gharafa were not willing to commit too much into attack, but their forward line, the hard working Weiss in particular, still gave Arabi defence plenty of headache.
Arabi had a golden opportunity to hit a goal back when a defensive lapse left Salah in front of the goal with only the goalkeeper to beat, but he failed to hit the target.
Salah had a dreadful day and minutes later headed straight at Hassan after he was found by a cross from Mohamed Salem.
At the other end, Weiss also missed a chance to enter the scoresheet when he had an opportunity to run at Arabi goal where Zarayi and Fathi did well to put the Slovak striker off balance. And in added time, Fathi yet again came to Arabi’s rescue as he made a goal-line save to deny Taremi.
At the other end, Hassan made a fine save from close range to stop a Khalfan volley as Gharafa took all three points and a clean sheet.
In another match, Samuel Eto'o was on target as Qatar Sports Club defeated Al Kharaitiyat 2-0. Osama Omari also found the target for Qatar SC, who moved to eighth with seven points. Kharaitiyat are 11th with just three points.
