Blustery conditions at the Hamad Bin Khalifa played into the hands of Umm Salal as they shared the points with Al Sadd in a bruising 1-1 draw yesterday.
Al Sadd floundered in the early stages of the tie. Former Sadd coach Hussain Amoutta was in attendance at the match, and the Moroccan tactician would not have been impressed with how his former charges had started the tie.
Umm Salal began to mount a sustained period of pressure from set pieces, but despite the aerial prowess of Yannick Sagbo and Wellington, the orange fortress where unable to carve out a chance of note.
Al Sadd’s first moment of quality delivered the opener of the match, from Qatari international Khalfan Ibrahim. A quick one-two with compatriot Hassan al-Haydoos on the 37th minute gave the midfielder time and space in the box, Khalfan promptly smashed his shot past Baba Malick in the Umm Salal goal.
Umm Salal quickly struck back in stoppage time, with the blustery conditions having a hand in their equalizer. A well delivered Rami Fayez free kick looped over the whole Al Sadd defence, Brazilian defender Wellington was on hand to scoop in from close range giving Umm Salal a deserved equalizer on the balance of play, the first half ended 1-1.
In the second half, the Wolves came out with renewed vigour and it took them nine minutes for them to register their first chance in anger. Unfortunately the Hassan al-Haydoos free kick sailed high and wide of Baba Malick’s goal.   
The Wolves had their rivals on the back foot for much of the second half, but could not find the killer touch in the final third. Chances missed from substitutes Meshaal al-Shammari and Saleh Alyazidi summed up a disappointing night for Jesualdo Ferreira.   


Action from the match between Al Sadd and Umm Salal.

Umm Salal held on well throughout the second half, holding off attacks from both wings from Nadir Belhadj and the ever present Haydoos. Brazilian defender Wellington exemplified the hard work of the Umm Salal during this period.
Bulent Uygun will be the happier of the two coaches at the end of the tie. As the Orange Fortress held on to register their eighth draw of the QSL season. For Al Sadd, they will use the three week break to focus on the second part of the season, and hope that they can get back into the QSL title race.

Jaish snatch late victory
An 83rd minute strike from supersub Yasir Abubakar Isa helped El Jaish grab a 2-1 victory over Al Sailiya on Sunday. This result meant that Jaish have now registered three consecutive wins while their opponents Sailiya have now suffered two back to back losses after going on a four-match winning spree.
Jaish got off to a great start to the match when their striker Abderrazzaq Hamedallah gave them a lead in the 12th minute. The Moroccan latched on a long ball from the deep and though his first attempt was thwarted by Sailiya keeper Gomis Gergory, Hamedallah was able to dispatch the ball into the back of the net in the second attempt.
The Soldiers looked like going into the break with a one-goal advantage but Sailiya were able to find an equalizer in the closing minutes of the first half. In the 39th minute, Sayaf Mohsin curled in a shot from a freekick which Abdulgadir Ilyas was able to direct into the goal with a back heel. Jaish keeper Khalifa Ndiaye got a hand to it but it rebounded off him into the goal.


Action from the match between Al Ahli and Al Wakrah. Ahli won the match 2-1.

The second half saw both teams searching for the lead. Despite Jaish being the stronger team on paper, Sailiya have improved a lot as compared to the first half of the season and they were taking the battle to their opponents. Status quo remained in the match and that could have prompted Jaish coach Sabri Lamouchi to bring on Isa in place of Wagner Ribeiro. The replacement bore fruit in the 83rd minute, just when it looked like a draw was on the cards.
Isa started the move when he passed to Romarinho and then continued his run inside the box. Meanwhile Jaish’s twinkle-toed Brazilian weaved his way through the Sailiya defence but just when he was able to pull the trigger the ball was deflected towards Isa who made no mistake with his finish.
This hard-earned win will further boost the confidence of the Jaish team who are now back in second place. Sailiya will feel robbed of a point but they can take heart from the strong performance that they showed here, which will help them go into the break with their head held high.   
 
Ahli finally register a win
In the third match of the day, Al Ahli finally put to an end to their dismal run of losses when they defeated Al Wakrah 2-1 yesterday. Further boosting their confidence will be the fact that they managed to come from a goal down to claim their first win in eight matches. Their previous seven matches had seen them draw three and lose four, three of which were consecutive defeats.
All goals were scored in the second half. It started with Wakrah grabbing the lead through Ruben Amorim in the 55th minute. It looked like another match which Ahli would dominate, create opportunities but still fail to score goals. That has been their pattern recently. But two goals in two-minutes changed all of that. First Mojtaba Jabari scored in the 80th minute to help his team equalize. And then just a minute later, Ahli’s main striker Mubele scored the second goal and the winner for this team.     
This win will ease the pressure on the shoulders of coach Zlatko Kranjcar going into the break. As for Wakrah, this loss means that they are still in 10th place, bunched together with six teams who are all within 2-3 points of each other.