Al Gharafa’s players and officials celebrate with the QSL Cup after winning the final against Al Duhail yesterday.
Vladimir Weiss scored the winner as Al Gharafa retained their QSL Cup title after edging Al Duhail SC 1-0 in the final, yesterday.
Having defeated Al Rayyan in the last edition’s final, Al Gharafa proved to be a better side against Al Duhail on their home turf. It is the third QSL Cup title for ‘The Cheetahs’.
Weiss scored the all-important goal in 13th minute on a penalty, which was awarded after a handball by defender Sultan Al Brake’s as he attempted to block Othman Al Yahri from entering the box.
Weiss’ spot kick was stopped by goalkeeper Amin Lecomte but the Slovak striker did no mistake in a rebound to give his team the lead.
Desperate for the equaliser, Al Duhail created chances but failed to score in front of defiant Al Gharafa goalkeeper Qasim Burhan, who denied striker Youssef El Arabi twice.
Luis Martin also came close to scoring but his left footer missed the target by a couple of feet.
Moroccan Medhi Benatia made his debut for Al Duhail and made his presence felt with solid defence with slick moves inside the box.
With Al Gharafa going into the second half with lead, Al Duhail stepped up their efforts for equaliser and dominated the proceedings. However, there efforts was brilliantly tackled by a solid Al Gharafa defence.
Al Duhail’s bid for a goal received a major setback when Ahmed Abdulqader got a straight red for a foul on Gharafa left back Ilyas Ahmed.
On the other hand, Al Gharafa came close to scoring again in the 73rd minute but Amro Seraj could not even hit the target, with only the goalkeeper to beat.
Five minutes later, Seraj was declared offside after he netted the ball.
Al Gharafa were lucky enough to make back-to-back finals in the 12-team tournament following a decision taken by the Qatar Football Association’s (QFA) Disciplinary Committee.
They lost to Al Kharaitiyat 1-4 in the semi-final, but the QFA Disciplinary Committee decided that Al Kharaitiyat violated the rule on the maximum number of resident players during the match which was played last Saturday.
The committee handed a 3-0 win for Al Gharafa as a result of the same.
They made it to the semis by defeating Al Ahli 1-0 in the last-eight clash, following an impressive group stage in which they finished second with nine points. Despite missing several key players who are currently on national duty, Al Duhail reached yesterday’s final with two dominant wins in a row.
They beat Al Khor 5-1 in the quarter-final before overcoming Qatar SC by an impressive 4-0 margin in the semis.
