The battle hotted up at top, middle and bottom of the 2019-20 QNB Stars League standings after Week 14 action, which saw a total of 15 goals being scored and three of the six matches being drawn. Two games each were played on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
The most prominent highlight of the week was leaders Al Duhail’s shock 0-1 defeat at the hands of Al Rayyan. It was The Red Knights’ first loss in this season’s league championship. Yet, they stayed on top with 33 points even as Al Rayyan bridged the gap with them after moving on to 31 points.
New recruit Johan Boli scored the all-important goal of the match.
Al Sadd stayed third in the table with 30 points after beating Al Sailiya 3-0, with star Qatari forward Akram Afif netting a hat-trick.
The Wolves thus cut their margin with strong title contenders Al Duhail from six points to three, while Al Sailiya slipped from sixth to seventh place with 17 points.
Al Gharafa retained the fourth position despite being held by Qatar SC goalless.
Al Gharafa have 23 points and Qatar SC 15, and the latter kept the ninth position in the table.
Al Arabi stayed fifth with 19 points even after they were held to a 1-1 draw by Umm Salal.
Pierre-Michelle Lasogga and Raul Oscar scored for Al Arabi and Umm Salal respectively.
Umm Salal, however, gained more from the verdict as they moved from rock bottom to 11th position with nine points.
Al Wakrah moved from seventh to sixth spot with 19 points after defeating Al Shahania 4-1 even as the latter slipped from 11th to last place in the standings with eight points.
Al Wakrah’s goals were scored by Mohamed Benyettou in the 21st and 90+1 minutes, Iliass Hassani (63rd) and Khalid Muneer (88th). Al Shahania had earlier equalised in the 51st minute through Ramin Rezaein.
Al Ahli and Al Khor remained in the eighth and 10th position respectively after they played out a 2-2 draw.
Al Ahli now have 17 points and Al Khor 19.
New signing Lucca Borges was the star of Al Khor with a double, whereas Abdelrahman Moustafa and Nabil El Zhar were Al Ahli’s scorers.
The QNB Stars League will resume on 20th February with Week 15 fixtures.
The quarterfinals of 2019-20 Ooredoo Cup have been scheduled during the break.
Source: qsl.qa