Al Duhail Stay Perfect; Al Gharafa End on a High Al Duhail Beat Al Wahda 1-0 at Home to Clinch Their Sixth Straight Victory, Gharafa Rally to Beat Tractorsazi 3-1
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TTENNISENNIS | Page 4 NNBABA | Page 5 Thiem saves Durant, match point in Thompson sink victory over Spurs; Heat Rublev stun Sixers Wednesday, April 18, 2018 FOOTBALL Sha’baan 2, 1439 AH I have no problem GULF TIMES with Bale, says Real boss Zidane SPORT Page 2 FOOTBALL / AFC CHAMPIONS LEAGUE Al Duhail stay perfect; Al Gharafa end on a high Al Duhail beat Al Wahda 1-0 at home to clinch their sixth straight victory, Gharafa rally to beat Tractorsazi 3-1 By Sports Reporter Doha atar’s Al Duhail completed the 2018 AFC Champions League group stage with an impressive 100 percent Qrecord, after Abdelrahman Fahmi’s goal gave them a 1-0 win over Al Wahda of the UAE at Abdullah bin Khalifa Sta- dium yesterday. Al Duhail head coach Djamel Belmadi handed starts to a number of young- sters and one of them almost repaid his trust in the 21st minute. Abdullah al-Ahrak had a free header following Mourad Naji’s cross, but it was saved by Al Wahda keeper Mohamed al-Shamsi. The reply from the visitors came through star man Balazs Dzsudzsak, who produced two brilliant attempts in the space of one minute. First, the Hungarian sent a scorching eff ort at goal from 30 yards out, and then, he tried to curl one in directly from a cor- ner. However, Amine Lecomte was alert on both occasions to keep the ball out. The hosts were handed an advantage in the 39th minute when Al Wahda de- fender Salem Sultan was sent off after pulling down Youssef El Arabi who was through on goal. Al Duhail took advantage of their numerical superiority and opened the scoring just two minutes into the sec- Al Duhail’s Abdelrahman Fahmi (third from left) celebrates his goal with his teammates during the AFC Champions League ond half, as young winger Fahmi netted match against Al Wahda at Abdullah Bin Khalifa Stadium in Doha yesterday. PICTURES: Noushad Thekkayil with aplomb following a fi ne give-and- go with El Arabi. Belmadi’s men will now play Group D they who made the breakthrough. Just tage up until the 70th minute, when Al The match saw little action at either runners-up Al Ain in the Round of 16. after the half hour mark, the Iranian Gharafa turned the game around in the half thereafter, and only came alive in side took the lead for the fi rst time in space of seven minutes. the 84th minute, when Al Duhail were GHARAFA WIN AT TRACTORSAZI this year’s campaign after Mohamed Bulent Uygun’s side had Moayed Has- also reduced to 10 men after Lucas Qatar’s Al Gharafa ended their 2018 Iranpourian dispatched a penalty, san to thank for it, with the winger fi rst Al Duhail coach Djamel Belmadi gives instructions to his players during the AFC Mendes was shown his marching or- AFC Champions League journey on a which had been awarded for a foul on curling in a free-kick over the wall to Champions League match against Al Wahda yesterday. ders. positive note after coming from behind Amir Arsalan Motahari. level the scores before turning provider The decision had no eff ect on the to register a 3-1 win over Iran’s Tractor- Al Gharafa’s attempts to get back into six minutes later. Taremi’s through ball show for his eff orts on the night, when Group A, but lost out on a Round of 16 result and Al Duhail held on to clinch sazi Tabriz yesterday. the game were led by Mehdi Taremi, sent Hassan racing through towards an he sent a fi erce strike past Karousian in spot due to an inferior head-to-head their sixth straight victory and become In a battle between two teams, who who eked out multiple openings but advancing keeper and he duly squared it the 87th minute to make it 3-1 and reg- record with their rivals. Tractorsazi just the fourth side in history to win all had already made their exit from the was denied by Tractorsazi custodian across for Abdelaziz Hatem to tap into an ister his fi fth goal of the campaign. ended up at the bottom of the group their group games in the AFC Champi- tournament, it was Tractorsazi who Farzin Karousian on each occasion. empty goal. Al Gharafa thus fi nished level on after failing to muster a single win ons League. showed urgency early on and it was Tractorsazi held on to their slim advan- Taremi then fi nally got something to points with second-placed Al Jazira in throughout the tournament. SPOTLIGHT Al Sadd, Al Rayyan renew rivalry in Qatar Cup By Sports Reporter their face-off . they lost out on the title in the second. Doha Al Sadd performed consistently well Michael Laudrup’s men were as inconsist- throughout the tournament, but for the oc- ent in a few matches as they were consistent casional slips. in many. l Sadd are seeking to do an encore, They made very limited changes to their Ahead of the Qatar Cup, they suff ered a set- while Al Rayyan are trying to be squad this season, with all four professional back when their top scorer Abderrazaq Ham- third time lucky when they clash in players — former Barcelona great and World dallah was ruled out for the rest of the season the fi rst semifi nal of Qatar Cup on Cup winner Xavi Hernandez of Spain, Alge- with an ankle injury. ASaturday. rians Baghdad Bounedjah and Jugurtha Ham- The Moroccan, the third best scorer in the The semi-fi nals will pit the QNB Stars roun, and Iran international Morteza Moham- just-concluded league with 18 goals (after Al League winners against the fourth-placed med — staying. Duhail’s Youssef El Arabi and Youssef Msa- team and runners-up against third-placed Al Sadd recruited a number of players kni), sustained the injury during their 4-1 win side. In case of a tie after regular time, match- during the winter transfer window, namely over Al Ahli in Week 22. es are decided in a tie-breaker without extra Hamed Ismail, Ali Faridoun, Sami Sabit, Ab- However, Al Rayyan have the likes of Rodri- time. dulkarim Hassan and Akram Afi f. go Tabata, Sebastian Soria, Mohamed Alaael- Al Sadd, runners-up in the QNB Stars Al Sadd won the most number of games din, Ahmed Yasser, Ahmed Abdelmaqsoud, League this season, have been a regular pres- (16), after Al Duhail (19). At the same time, Koh Myong-Jin, Mohsine Moutaouli and ence in the Qatar Cup and also in its earlier they had the best defence, conceding only 25 Daniel Goumou to deliver the goods. version, the Heir Apparent’s Cup. goals, two less than Al Duhail. Honours were even in the high-profi le Qa- The Wolves ended up on 49 points with 16 They were the second best in terms of the tar Clasico between Al Sadd and Al Rayyan. wins, one draw and fi ve defeats. number of goals scored (68) compared to Al While The Wolves lost 1-2 in the fi rst phase, In last season’s Qatar Cup, Al Sadd had Duhail’s 86. they won 2-0 in the second. defeated Al Rayyan 3-1 in the semi-fi nal and On the other hand, Al Rayyan are seeking Meanwhile, Al Sadd reached the Round erstwhile El Jaish 2-1 in the fi nal. The Lions their fi rst fi nal in the Qatar Cup after fi nishing of 16 in the AFC Champions League, where had lost to erstwhile Lekhwiya 1-3 in the 2015- third in the QNB Stars League with 43 points Al Rayyan failed to book their berth in the 16 season’s semifi nal. from 13 wins, four draws and fi ve defeats. knockout stage. Jesualdo Ferreira’s men were very much in It is against this backdrop that Al Rayyan Al Rayyan had won the tournament’s fi rst the QNB Stars League title race till Week 19, will embark on their Qatar Cup campaign this edition in the 1994-95 season when it was but the 3-4 defeat to Al Duhail after a thrilling time. And they will face Al Sadd for the sec- held as the Heir Apparent’s Cup, defeating Al game dashed their hopes. Had Al Sadd beaten ond year in a row. Arabi in the fi nal. Al Duhail, things might have been diff erent Al Rayyan had many positive results to show The match will kick off at the Al Sadd Sta- In this February 8, 2018, picture, Al Sadd players celebrate Jugurtha Hamroun’s goal in the QNB Stars as only two points separated them going into for their eff orts in the league’s fi rst phase, but dium at 7pm on Saturday. League match against Al Rayyan. Al Sadd had won the match, the last meeting between the two clubs, 2-0. Gulf Times 2 Wednesday, April 18, 2018 FOOTBALL COMMENT SPOTLIGHT FIFA probes Russia over racist chants I have no problem tions of the 50,000 crowd tar- AFP Paris geting Pogba. Scepticism IFA has opened discipli- The RFU’s initial response was nary proceedings against sceptical – claiming they had World Cup hosts Rus- heard nothing – but the coun- sia over monkey chants try’s governing body then did with Bale: Zidane Fheard during a friendly interna- launch its own investigation. tional against France, a spokes- FIFA followed suit after French ‘No I don’t think so, this is football.