Al Wakrah land big blow to Al Sadd’s title challenge

Doha, Qatar: Al Wakrah land a mighty blow to Al Sadd's chances of defending the title with a 2-1 victory on Thursday.

It was Sadd's third league defeat in the last five matches and it leaves them at fourth in the standings, with 18 points from 10 matches, and 11 points behind leaders Al Duhail.

Mohamed Benyettou (eighth minute) and Omar Ali (38th minute) scored Al Wakrah’s goals, while Hassan Al Haydous reduced the margin for Al Sadd in the 85th minute.

Al Sadd have two matches in hand, deferred (from Weeks 5 and 7) due to their engagements in the 2019 AFC Champions League. They will play Al Arabi on 6th January and Al Khor on 21st January before the QNB Stars League’s Week 13 action begins on 23rd January.

Al Wakrah moved to 15 points with their fourth victory. 

Al Sadd dominated the game with 62 per cent possession and created chances galore.

However, Al Wakrah played a smart game. The Blue Wave almost downed the shutter by the end of first half when they were two goals up and resorted to counter-attacks.

Benyettou was their livewire, but much credit should go to goalkeeper Hassan Idriss who weathered a flurry of attacks by Al Sadd, more in the second half.

Nam Tae-Hee, Baghdad Bounedjah, Boualem Khoukhi, Hamed Ismail, Al Haydous, Pedro, Akram Afif all either missed the mark or were thwarted by Idriss.

Benyettou scored off a free-kick taken by Abdulrahman Ahmed, whereas Omar’s goal came as a result of a corner kick and the ball was deflected in by Bounedjah.

All that Al Sadd could do was scoring a late goal.

Adding to The Wolves’ woes, Bounedjah sent a penalty straight to Idriss in the 20th minute. The kick was awarded for a foul on Bounedjah himself by Al Wakrah captain Bruno Uvini.