Al-Arabi snatched a precious victory against Al-Gharrafa by defeating it with a clean goal today in poned confrontation of the tenth round of the Qatar Football League (QNB Stars League), which brought them together at Thani Bin Jassim Stadium.
Al-Arabi owes credit for achieving the victory to its Tunisian striker Youssef Msakni, who scored the winning goal and the only match in the 38th minute from the penalty mark. Al-Arabi, who reached its 11th victory this season, raised its score to 34 points, to reduce the difference to two points with Al-Duhail leaders with 36 points, while the balance of Al-Gharafa, who received its fifth defeat this season, stopped at 23 points in sixth place.
The match came at a good technical level, with a relative advantage for Al-Arabi, who, despite his lack of his Syrian goal scorer Omar Al-Soma, possessed the ferocity that enabled him to impose his rhythm and style on the midfield, and relied on speed to move from defense to attack and pressure on the ball carrier, and gave coach Yunus Ali an active role. Hilal Muhammad on the left side, and Hamed Ismail on the right side, in addition to the tactical commitment at the defense level that nullified the opponent’s offensive attempts, and knew how to isolate his front line from the center axis, Yassin Brahimi. Al-Arabi took precedence, when the referee of the World Cup match, Abdul Rahman Al-Jassem, awarded a penalty kick after a handball on Al-Gharafa defender Asloum Khojayev in the 38th minute, which was executed with perfection by the Tunisian international, Youssef Al-Masakni.
Al-Arabi succeeded in maintaining its lead with the whistle at the end of the first half, with its cohesion in the back lines, its success in moving the ball across the three lines, and activating the parties.
In the second half, Al-Arabi tried to play with balance in the three lines, knowing that the opponent would try to intensify his attacks to adjust the score, and 3 minutes after the start whistle, Rami Suhail missed the opportunity to double the score after he escaped from the defensive control and broke the offside trap, and faced Al-Gharafa goalkeeper Youssef Hassan. However, he played the ball outside the empty goal. The response from Al-Gharafa came with an opportunity that the Algerian Isaac Belfoudel missed when he received a wonderful through pass from his compatriot Yassine Brahimi, but Al-Arabi goalkeeper Jassim Al-Hail was able to remove the danger and turn the ball into a corner kick in the 60th minute. Al-Arabi was forced to complete the last 22 minutes with 10 players after Its captain, Abdullah Marafih, was sent off for roughness on Al-Gharafa player Hammam Al-Amin in the 68th minute.
Despite the numerical shortage of the Al-Arabi team, it did not back down and maintained its offensive approach, relying on the breakthroughs of the Tunisian international Youssef Al-Masakni and the breakthroughs of Rami Suhail from the right side, as well as the substitute Ibrahim Kalla, who almost doubled the score with a ball he sent from 25 meters, the goalkeeper of the Qatari team Youssef Hassan He cleared the ball into a corner at the last minute. Al-Gharafa missed the focus in the offensive ends, and in the last 10 minutes tried to force Al-Arabi to return to his back positions, and resorted to raised and fallen balls inside the area, but goalkeeper Jassim Al-Hail shone in defending his goal, and fared more than one attempt, to lead his team to an important victory that gave him the opportunity to narrow The noose on leaders Al Duhail, benefiting from a draw against Al Sadd. This round opened yesterday with Al-Markhiya defeating Al-Sailiya 3-1, Al-Rayyan tied with Al-Wakra with a goal for each of them, and a positive tie with two goals each dominated the summit of Al-Sadd and Al-Duhail.
Al-Duhail topped the league standings with 36 points, two points behind Al-Arabi, who finished in second place, with 34 points. Al-Sadd came third with 29 points, Qatar fourth with 26 points, Al-Wakra fifth with 24 points, Al-Gharafa sixth with 23 points, Al-Ahly seventh with 21 points, and Al-Shamal. Ninth with 14 points, Al Rayyan tenth with 13 points, Umm Salal in eleventh place with 13 points as well, and finally Al Sailiya with 9 points.
