Al-Duhail went steadily towards regaining the Qatari Football League title, which was absent from it in the past two editions, after coming from behind against Al-Sailiya on Saturday to win 3-1 in the eighteenth round, which saw Al-Sadd hold on to a glimmer of hope for the competition after its victory over Al-Wakra 4-2.
Al-Duhail raised its score to 42 points, moving away by five points temporarily from Al-Arabi II, with the advantage of a postponed match with Al-Rayyan, while Al-Sailiya came close to relegating to the ranks of second-division clubs, after losing 13 in the league and frozen its balance at the ninth point in last place.
The Argentine coach Hernan Crespo's team waited nearly an hour to turn the table on his opponent, who advanced with a magnifying glass through a penalty kick that Ahmed El Sebaei won and the Swedish Sergio Carlos successfully implemented it (28), as Tunisian Ferjani Sassi equalized the score with a header, taking advantage of Khaled Mohamed's cross (58).
Al-Duhail sought the help of Al-Moez Ali, who presented a wonderful pass to Kenyan Michael Onga to score the lead goal (71), before Al-Moez secured his team's victory in the third after Olonga's pass in stoppage time (90 + 7).
Al-Sadd maintained some of its chances in the competition after consolidating its third position by defeating Al-Wakra 4-2, raising its score to 35 points, while Al-Wakra's balance froze at point 27, temporarily retaining its fourth position.
The Spanish coach Juanma Leo's team did not care about the numerical shortage in its ranks in the absence of a large number of its main players, and remained faithful to its offensive style, so that Moroccan Ayoub Al Kaabi scored the first goal, taking advantage of Akram Afif's pass (27), before the latter consolidated the lead with the second goal at the beginning of the second half after exchanging the ball with Ali Asad hit it hard with the roof of the goal (48).
Australian Lucas Spencer narrowed the difference after he followed the header of Brazilian Lucas Mendes, returning from goalkeeper Saad Al-Sheeb (57), but Akram Afif restored the two-goal difference, taking advantage of Ayoub Al-Kaabi's pass (66).
And at a time when the Angolan Jason Dalla revived Al-Wakra’s hopes by returning by scoring the second goal after a fine individual effort (87), Moroccan Ayoub Al-Kaabi was quickly killing those hopes after he scored the fourth goal after one minute after a powerful shot hit the defender and missed the goalkeeper (88).
The round continues on Sunday with Al-Markhiya’s confrontations with Al-Gharafa and Al-Ahly with Al-Shamal, to be concluded on Monday with one confrontation between Al-Arabi and Umm Salal, as the Al-Rayyan and Qatar match was postponed to April 23 due to the latter’s association with the first leg of the King Salman Cup for the Arab Champions Clubs.