A delighted  Al Rayyan coach Jorge Fossati hugs his stars Rodrigo Tabata (L) and Nathan after the team’s 2-0 win over Al Gharafa yesterday.

By Sports Reporter/Doha


Even taking into account the uncertainties of sport, it’s difficult to see Al Rayyan failing to win the Qatar Stars League this season. With their 11th consecutive victory in as many matches yesterday, the Lions are already 10 points clear of El Jaish at the top which simply means one thing: The title is theirs to lose.
The chance of them stumbling to a few unlikely defeats down the line, however, and complicating the race to the crown, is looking increasingly bleaker. They have brushed aside all comers so far, and although Al Gharafa were all grit and gumption last night, Jorge Fossati’s men were always ahead in all aspects of the game.
Their 2-0 win was also emblematic of their penchant for scoring thrilling goals – something which they have maintained from the start, with Rodrigo Tabata yet again in the limelight.
It took more than half an hour for Al Rayyan to break down the Gharafa defence, but when they did it had a rare quality that would have made even the bigger leagues proud.
After a poor clearance by Al Gharafa goalkeeper Qassim Burhan which was intercepted a few yards outside the penalty area, Sebastian Soria managed to slip in a pass for Tabata, who cut past two defenders and the goalkeeper to score from an acute angle in the 35th minute.
Brazilian Tabata now looks set to win QSL’s best player award for the second time – he already has 10 goals in 11 matches, a statistic he is surely going to improve as the tournament continues.
Gharafa’s determination to keep the Lions at an arm’s length paid off to some extent, but even with the best of resources they could not have come up with a plan to stop Al Rayyan from scoring their second goal.
Nathan Otavio, who scored the goal, was the most shocked player on the ground, when he found his free-kick taken from just a few yards from the centre line beat former Qatar national team goalkeeper Burhan, who failed to time his jump properly and let the ball fly into the net.
The 66th minute freakish strike took the energy out of Al Gharafa , who would still consider themselves lucky having restricted Al Rayyan to just two goals.
Earlier, a spirited Qatar Sports Club bounced back from recent heavy defeats to beat second-placed El Jaish and severely dent the Soldiers’ title hopes.
The Kings triumphed 1-0 at Suhaim Bin Hamad Stadium to grab only their second victory of the season.
For El Jaish it was a second defeat in two matches after last week’s 2-1 reverse against points leaders Al Rayyan.
Mousa al-Allaq scored the winner for Qatar SC, who had conceded 14 goals in their previous two matches.
 The dangerous Yousef al-Kubaisi produced a defence-splitting pass on the hour mark and al-Allaq fired home a low shot from inside the area.
Sardor Rashidov hit a free-kick against the crossbar as Jaish searched for an equaliser. But coach Sebastiao Lazaroni’s men were resolute in defence and well marshaled by goalkeeper Mohammed Mubarak.
El Jaish were left to regret not going in front in the first half, when they had the lion’s share of possession. Abderrazak Hamdallah almost broke the deadlock in the 23rd minute, but his swept effort was cleared off the line by Mohamed al-Robeai.
The visitors had another chance five minutes later. Rashidov hit a free-kick which bobbled before being parried by Mubarak. Magid Mohammed tried to score from the rebound, but Mubarak forced the forward to fire wide.
Qatar SC wasted two good chances just before the break. Mouhcine Iajour should have done better from inside the six-yard area, while Ali al-Mohannadi was left frustrated after firing straight at Khalifa Abo Baker when clean through on goal.
Those missed chances were forgotten in the second half though when al-Allaq pounced to the delight of Lazaroni and the Kings’ faithful.