QNB Stars League: Afif’s late goal sees Al-Sadd defeat Al-Khor 2-1

A late goal from Akram Afif clinced a 2-1 win for Al-Sadd over Al-Khor in a postponed Round 7 game from the QNB Stars League, which was played at the Al-Khor Stadium on Tuesday.

The win lifted Al-Sadd’s tally to 24 points from 12 games in the league table, where they sit in third position.

Al-Khor opened the scoring early on through Tiago Bezerra. In the 4th minute, the Al-Sadd defence failed to clear the ball, and the Brazilian attacker took a shot at goal which went in past Saad Al-Dosari.

After that setback, Al-Sadd tried hard to come up with a reply, with Nam Tae-hee’s shot flying just wide of the left post in the 15th minute.

Nam finally struck the target in the 30th minute. Hashim Ali sent in a cross from the right, which was controlled initially by Baghdad Bounedjah before the ball fell to Nam, who sent a fierce strike past the Al-Khor keeper Papa Djibril to equalise.

At the start of the second half, Hassan Al-Haydos was brought in by Xavi to replace Hashim on the right wing.

In the 71st minute, Ali Asad thought he had scored the second goal for Al-Sadd, but VAR ruled the effort out as Bounedjah was found to be in an offside position in the buildup.

Al-Sadd pushed forward in search of the winner, and in the 89th minute, Akram Afif dribbled through the left win and sent in a cross but the Al-Khor defence cleared the ball away from Bounedjah at the final moment.

Eventually, the Wolves found the target and the winning goal arrived in the sixth and last minute of stoppage time. After an Al-Sadd free-kick from the left was parried away by Papa Djibril, the ball fell to Afif, who made no mistake with his precise strike to the top of the goal.

MATCH DETAILS

Al-Sadd x Al-Khor (QNB Stars League Round 7 – postponed game)

Venue:

Al-Khor Stadium

Lineups:

Al-Sadd: Saad Al-Dosari, Pedro Miguel, Boualem Khoukhi, Jung Woo-young, Abdulkarim Hassan, Ali Asad (Abdulaziz Al-Ansari), Salem Al-Hajri, Nam Tae-hee, Hashim Ali (Hassan Al-Haydos), Baghdad Bounedjah, Akram Afif

Al-Khor: Papa Djibril, Youssef Ramadan, Musab Abdelmajid, Lucca Borges, Ibrahim Amada, Nasser Abdulsalam, Nayef Mubarak, Robert Melki, Abdulrahman Mohammad, Tiago Bezerra, Ahmed Hammoudan (Abdullah Al Murisi)

Result:

Al-Sadd won 2-1

Goals:

4′ Tiago Bezerra
30′ Nam Tae-hee
90+6′ Akram Afif

Bookings:

18′ Tiago Bezerra
34′ Akram Afif
40′ Salem Al-Hajri
84′ Papa Djibril

Referees:

Main referee: Mohammed Al-Shammari
Assistant referee: Ramzan Al-Nuaimi
Assistant referee: Hamad Al-Ejji
Fourth official: Mohammed Ahmed