For the first time in two years, the Prince Cup championship will witness a new champion, after the surprises that witnessed the quarter -finals of the defending champions and the league champion, and Al -Duhail 2022. And the heart of Al -Gharafa and Al -Rayyan expectations of a penalty shootout.
Next to Al -Gharafa and Al -Rayyan, Al -Ahly and Umm Salal, who achieved the title long ago, qualified for a long time, after their superiority over Al -Shahaniya and the north.
Because of these surprises, the fans will witness a gold square for the most expensive tournaments completely different from last season, with the qualification of Al -Rayyan, Umm Salal and Al -Ahly, with the exception of Al -Gharafa, which was one of the outskirts of last season.
The golden square for the most expensive tournaments will also be a little different from the league, where only Al -Gharafa and Al -Ahly will be present, third and fourth league, next to Al Rayyan V, then Umm Salal, who survived the relegation after the decisive match to the second division.
After these results, we will witness in the golden square two difficult confrontations, the first is Al -Gharafa with Umm Salal, and the second Al -Rayyan with Al -Ahly.
These four teams have not achieved the title long ago, and they dream of witnessing the 2025 season to witness the return of the precious title to them.
Al -Rayyan is the last to win the title among these teams, and that was in the 2013 season, and before him Al -Gharafa in the 2012 season, and Umm Salal in 2008, while Al -Ahly achieved his last titles in the 1992 season.
The semi-final confrontations were repeated in the final in the final, where Al-Rayyan met with Al-Ahly in the 1992 final and Al-Ahly won 2-1, and Al-Gharafa met with Umm Salal in the 2008 final, and Umm Salal won the penalty shootout 6-3 after the end of the original and additional time in a 2-2 draw.
Umm Salal regained his prestige
The North match with Umm Salal was not less exciting, but Umm Salal, who is evolving in the recent period, succeeded in restoring his prestige, and resolving the confrontation with a penalty shootout, after the original and additional time ended in a draw as well, to smile the penalty shootout for the “hawks” and qualified for the semi -finals after suffering a lot in the league, and continued with the adults after exceeding the comma.
The funny thing is that Umm Salal won five consecutive matches, despite his suffering in the second section of the “I want”, where he beat Al -Ahly and then Al -Arabi in the last two games, then he passed the separation against Al -Markhiya, and in the round of 16 of the cup across Al -Wakra, then in the quarter -finals exceeded the north.
Umm Salal scored during the cup matches, 5 goals, of which four against Al -Wakra, and a goal in the northern goal, and in comparison with the matches of the second division of the league, we find a big difference; The victory achieved by the “hawks” gives the players a great moral recovery that led to their level of precious championship. Will Umm Salal continue and repeat the memories of 2008, when he ascended to the final and overcome the Gharafa and scored the cup for the first time, and also in 2010 when he climbed to the final to face Al -Rayyan and lose a goal in the last breath, when the Brazilian Avono Alves scored the only goal in the 82nd minute, at Khalifa International Stadium.
Umm Salal last season lost in the quarter -finals to Al -Gharafa 4/2 after he exceeded the heresies in the round of 16.
As for Al -Gharafa, the next party, he lost to Al -Qattrawi with penalty kicks. Hence, we find that there is a major challenge between the two teams in this match, in an effort to reach the final.
The quarter -finals are the most enjoyable fans
By all the standards, Al -Rayyan’s matches with Al -Duhail, and Al -Gharafa with Al -Sadd were permanently early, and they were fun, exciting and fireworks, each continued for 120 minutes, and completed the penalty shootout that resolved the two confrontations.
While Al -Ahly’s matches with Al -Shahaniya, and Umm Salal with the north were less powerful and exciting, and if the mother of Salal and the north witnessed an additional time and a penalty shootout as well.
The most beautiful thing about the Al -Gharafa matches with Al -Sadd, and Al -Rayyan with Al -Duhail, that they celebrated the excitement until the last minute, and the fans were forced to follow their last minutes while standing in the stands from the severity of the excitement.
The Gharafa was just around the corner from qualifying in the original time, had it not been for the deadly goal that Boualam Khokhi scored in stoppage time, the match would extend to the extra time and then weighting, until the Gharafa decided.
The exciting scenario was repeated in Al -Rayyan’s meeting with Al -Duhail, a meeting that witnessed a great superiority of Al -Duhail, who advanced with two goals without a response, and was close to qualifying, had it not been for the insistence and stubbornness of Al -Rayyan, who did not despair and succeeded in the heart of the match upside down in the last minutes, and scored two goals in the 85th and 98th minutes, and resolved matters by penalty shootouts as well.
The two matches witnessed a natural nervous tension as usual in the cup matches, especially the precious championship, and the most prominent tensions in the Al -Sadd match with Al -Gharafa were during the meeting and after its end.
In the Al -Ahly match, the “Dean” experience played the biggest role in resolving matters, although Al -Shahaniya was ahead in the seventh minute, but the dean knew how to restore matters and tie and then win at the additional time, after a great stubbornness on the part of Al -Shahaniya, who almost turned matters in the last minutes.