El Jaish's Romarinho (centre) kicks to score during their Emir Cup Quarter-final match against Umm Salal, played at Lekhwiya Stadium yesterday. El Jaish beat Umm Salal 5-3 to reach the semi-finals.
A hat-trick from Brazilian Romarinho Ricardo booked an Emir Cup semi-final place for El Jaish as they trounced Umm Salal 5-3 in the last quarter-final match at Lekhwiya Stadium yesterday.
Romarinho struck in the 33rd minute and added two more goals in the second half (46th and 50th) to take the game away from Umm Salal’s reach.
Romarinho's hat-trick was the second one in successive days.
On Friday, Al Sadd striker Baghdad Bounedjah had scored all the four goals in their 4-1 win over Al Kharaitiyat.
In the first semi-final, Lekhwiya will meet rivals Al Rayyan on May 13 at Al Sadd Stadium. On the following day, El Jaish will meet Al Sadd at the same venue.
The final will be played on May 19.
Yesterday, El Jaish hardly took time to settle down and came up with varied combinations to unsettle the rival defense.
The constant pressure paid off within a few minutes from kick off.
El Jaish went into the lead in the ninth minute of the match.
Uzbekistan striker Sardor Rashidov managed to find holes in the Umm Salal defense to give the lead for El Jaish.
The 25-year-old’s long-range free kick sailed over the defensive wall and past the leaping Umm Salal goalkeeper to put El Jaish ahead,
El Jaish continued to dominate while Umm Salal came up with the occasional move.
Umm Salal could not break through the El Jaish defense which stood their ground to the occasional forays.
El Jaish consolidated the lead in the 33rd minute with Romarinho's powerful drive eluding the Umm Salal keeper's gloves and ended into the back of the nets. The teams went into the half time break with El Jaish leading 2-0 and the start of the first seven minutes of the second half produced three goals.
On resumption, El Jaish were able to sustain the pressure as Romarinho leaped high to head home the flag kick into the nets in the first minute of the second half, to make it 3-0.
Four minutes later, the Brazilian complete went on to complete his hat trick.
Umm Salal, however, did not throw in the towel and managed to pull one back in the 52nd minute with Mahmoud Al Mawas finding the net, 4-1.
El Jaish suffered a blow in the 58th minute when defender Yasser Abubakar was showed the red card for a dangerous tackle.
Three minutes after gaining the numerical advantage Umm Salal found to split open the El Jaish defense with Sagbo getting his name on the scorers list, 5-2.
Thereafter, Umm Salal tried to break into the El Jaish defense but without any success, till the late flurry in the dying minutes of the match.
Hamdallah Abderazak made it 5-2 for El Jaish in the last minute of the match while Umm Salal added the third one with Nadiya Ibrahima finding the net.
El Jaish's Romarinho (centre) kicks to score during their Emir Cup Quarter-final match against Umm Salal, played at Lekhwiya Stadium yesterday. El Jaish beat Umm Salal 5-3 to reach the semi-finals.
