Al-Duhail came close to winning the Qatari Football League title after defeating Umm Salal 2-1 on Saturday in the twentieth stage, taking advantage of the sudden fall of its Al-Arabi chaser in front of Al-Wakra 1-2.

Al-Duhail increased its tally to 48 points, moving away from the lead by five points from Al-Arabi, so that it needs a victory from its last two matches to regain the title that it relinquished in the past two editions in favor of rivals Al-Sadd.

Umm Salal's balance froze at 16 points in the penultimate position leading to the relegation supplement, amid a threat to fall to the last position leading directly to the second division, after Al-Sailiya, bottom of the standings, reduced the difference to three points after its 4-0 victory over Al-Ahly on Saturday.

Al-Duhail owes its victory to its Kenyan striker Michael Olunga, who scored both goals (45 + 3 from a penalty kick and 64).

Argentine coach Hernán Crespo's team waited until the last minutes of the first half to end Umm Salal's stubbornness, when Tunisian Ferjani Sassi won a penalty kick after being blocked by Moroccan Adel Rahili. He needed confirmation of the intervention of the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) technique before Olonga executed it. Successfully in overtime (45+3).

The team of Moroccan coach Talal Al-Qarqarawi refused to leave the first session late, so Adel Al-Rahili made up for the mistake, scoring the equalizing goal after a header from a corner ball (45 + 5), however, Olonga came back and gave his team the valuable victory goal in the second half, taking advantage of Al-Moez Ali’s rebound shot from the goalkeeper and returned it. to the net (64).

Al-Arabi missed the opportunity to stay close to Al-Duhail until the last meter when he fell in front of Al-Wakra 1-2, which complicated the task of returning to the podium after an absence of nearly 25 years.

On the other hand, the team of the Spanish coach, Tintin Marques, regained the fourth place, which he relinquished in the last stage, in favor of Al-Gharafa, after raising its score to 33 points.

Al-Wakra advanced through Youssef Abdel-Razzaq, who took advantage of Hazem Shehadeh's shot, returning from goalkeeper Jassim Al-Hail, and deposited it in the net (34), before Al-Arabi equalized from a penalty kick caused by Brazilian defender Lucas Mendes for touching the ball inside the area, and it was executed by the Syrian Omar Al-Soma (82).

However, substitute Mohamed Khaled snatched the precious winning goal for Al-Wakra in stoppage time after a powerful shot from inside the area (90 + 1).

In a third match, Al-Sailiya revived its hopes of avoiding direct relegation to the second division after its broad victory over Al-Ahly 4-0, raising its score to 13 points and maintaining the chances of entering the play-off after it became only three points away from Umm Salal penultimate.
For his part, the “Brigadier General” received the fifth loss in a row, to freeze his balance at point 21 in eighth place.

Al-Sailiya advanced through Argentine defender Sergio Javier Vitor (34), before benefiting from a numerical shortage in the ranks of Al-Ahly after the expulsion of Jordanian Yazan Al-Naimat with the second yellow card (59), to add the Swedish Carlos Strandberg second (61) and third (86), then substitute Hassan Blink fourth ( 90).