QSL
Al Arabi beat Al Markhiya 2-0 in Week 15 of the 2022-2023 season QNB Stars League at the Al Arabi Stadium on Tuesday.
The action-packed encounter produced a lot of excitement for the fans.
Al Markhiya, who held sway in the first half and initially in the second half, rued their chances as Al Arabi stormed the rival citadel twice and had one ruled out as off-side.
The goals for Al Arabi came from Rami Suhail in the 67th minute and from a penalty in the 90th minute scored by Yousef Msakni.
The win took Al Arabi’s points tally to 31 from 14 matches, one point shy of leaders Al Duhail, who have 32 points from 13 games. Al Markhiya stood on 12 points from as many matches.
Al Markhiya presented a strong challenge to Al Arabi and were also successful in making several good moves, but they lacked good finishing.
In the opening half, a crucial hit sailed over the bar for Al Markhiya and later in the 42nd minute, Ayoub Assal, who was quite impressive, connected a cross in front of the goal, but the ball went just wide to the right.
In the second half, a 48th minute free-kick strike of Al Markhiya was well saved by Al Arabi goalkeeper Mahmoud Abunada.
Two minutes later, Assal had a clear shot and he made a powerful kick too, but again Abunada cut it off.
Till then, Al Markhiya looked threatening as they kept testing the Al Arabi defence.
The Dream Team, however, found momentum soon enough when Abdulla Hassan collected a high ball and dribbled to send in a cross from near the goal line for Rami Suhail to score a wonderful goal off a tight angle beating a defender and the goalkeeper.
Al Arabi’s second goal came against the run of play as Al Markhiya goalkeeper Loukay Sherif Ashour ran out to collect a ball in the middle of the danger area, but in the process brought down Omar Al Somah and the referee signaled to the spot.
Msakni then coolly converted the penalty.
In the dying minutes, Al Arabi’s substitute Ibrahim Kalla struck successfully from the top of the box, but the referee disallowed the goal signalling off-side. A VAR check confirmed the ‘slight’ off-side of Rami Suhail with the geometric line.