Al-Duhail strengthened its lead in the Qatari Football League “Areed Stars League” standings with its broad victory over Al-Shamal by six goals to two at the end of the ninth round of competitions, so that the team that won the title eight times maintained the four-point difference that separates it from the closest competitors as part of its efforts to regain the title that it lost last season.
As for Al Sadd, which has won the tournament the most (17 times), it won the Qatar Clasico in its favor against Al Rayyan after coming from a goal down to win thanks to the best player in Asia 2023, Akram Afif, who scored the winning goal a minute before the end of normal time to maintain his position in second place and intensify his pursuit of the leader after without a team. Spanish coach Felix Sanchez won his fourth successive victory and sixth this season, while Al Rayyan failed to reconcile his supporters and the team that won the title 8 times was exposed to new disappointment after suffering its fifth defeat this season.
While Al-Gharafa was able to restore Al-Arabi to a series of unstable results after the team of Portuguese coach Pedro Martinez won the full mark thanks to the continued brilliance of its Algerian star, Yassine Brahimi, so that the team maintained its position among the top four.
At Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium, under the eyes of its fans, Al Sadd, the defending champion, was able to overturn its deficit with a goal against Al Rayyan, which was signed by Egyptian international striker Mahmoud Trezeguet, a third of an hour before the end of normal time. However, Mohamed Waad and Akram Afif (participated as a substitute) exchanged assists and scoring to secure the three points. Which kept Al Sadd in second place.
Al Rayyan’s Brazilian striker, Roger Guedes, was subjected to significant criticism after wasting many scoring opportunities, which prevented the team from achieving its fourth victory this season, leaving it in seventh place with 10 points.
Al-Sadd fans celebrated after the final whistle with team star Akram Afif, who was recently crowned the best player in the continent, in an exemplary manner. This victory will give great motivation to the team, which heads tomorrow to meet its host, Al-Wasl, UAE, in the fourth round of the Champions League.
As for Al-Duhail, it regained its winning streak after stumbling in the last round against Al-Gharafa, and was able to inflict the fifth defeat on Al-Shamal this season by defeating them by six goals to two, so that French coach Christophe Galtier’s team continued to maintain its top spot in the standings, 4 points behind its closest competitors, Al-Sadd and Al-Ahly.
Qatari national team striker Almoez Ali was able to score two of the six goals for his team, reaching his fifth goal this season.
As for Al-Duhail, they will face a difficult task when they meet Al-Arabi in the tenth round on November 23rd, and the same will be the case for Al-Shamal, which will face Al-Rayyan at the latter’s stadium on the 22nd of the same month.
In the same way, Al-Ahly did not waste the opportunity to stay close to the top after beating Al-Shahania by two goals to one, so that Croatian coach Igor Pescan’s team maintained its position in third place on goal difference from runner-up Al-Sadd.
Al-Ahly was able to avoid a draw against Al-Shahania after former Spanish Las Palmas striker Eric Exposito managed to score the winning goal in the 90th minute, bringing the team to its fifth victory this season.
Al-Ahly achieved its fourth victory over Al-Shahania during 9 confrontations between them since the 2014/2015 season, compensating for the defeat it suffered in the 2019/2020 season by three goals to one.
Al-Wakrah got rid of the crisis of negative results and was able to break the partnership with Umm Salal for fifth place by defeating them 3-0, so that coach Ali Rahma Al-Marri’s team was able to reach the fourteenth point, one point behind Al-Gharafa in fourth place.
For its part, Umm Salal was forced to play with a numerical disadvantage for the second match in a row after its player Khaled Abdul Raouf was sent off about a third of an hour before the end of normal time after he was deprived of the efforts of his striker Kenji Gorey in the previous match against Al-Khor.
Al-Wakrah maintained its advantage over Umm Salal after achieving its sixth victory in the last 15 matches between them in the tournament, which is the third in a row after winning 2/0 and 2/1 in the last two confrontations in the tournament.
Al-Gharafa, which achieved its fourth victory this season, was able to overcome Al-Arabi by three goals to one in a confrontation that witnessed the brilliance of Algerian star Yassine Brahimi and Spanish Real Madrid striker Joselu, so that the team led by Portuguese coach Pedro Martinez for the third season in a row, “the best coach of last season,” confirmed its position in fourth place with 15 points.
As for Al Arabi, it suffered its third defeat this season, and its score stopped at 10 points in ninth place.
Al-Gharafa was able to achieve its third successive victory over Al-Arabi, while Al-Arabi’s last victory over its competitor comes back for the 2022/2023 season with a clean triple scored by Syrian Omar Al-Somah, who is currently absent from the team.
In another match, in the ninth round of the Arid Stars League, the Qatar team knew how to seize a valuable victory with two goals to one over Al-Khor, so that the team of Moroccan coach Youssef Al-Safari recorded its third victory this season, which made it advance to tenth place.
Al-Khor was close to coming away with a valuable point, but Qatar striker Elias Hamid was able to give his team the three points by scoring the winning goal in the sixth minute after ninety, bringing the team to the tenth point.
Qatar achieved its first victory over Al-Khor after two successive defeats in their last two matches in the tournament, as their last victory came during the 2020/2021 season by two goals to one.
Al-Khor remained the only team in the league without any victory, after suffering its fifth defeat this season in the third official appearance of its new Tunisian coach, Mahdi Nafti.
Al-Khor maintained last place in the standings, with four points remaining.
In terms of “digital statistics,” I learned in the ninth round of the Stars League competitions that I want to score 24 goals, at a rate of 4 goals per match, as the scoring rate increased after 16 goals were scored in the last round.
This round witnessed victory in the six matches in exchange for the absence of a draw, and this was repeated for the third time after the third and seventh rounds.
Three matches ended with one score of 2/1, and all teams scored goals except Umm Salal, and the Al Wakrah team emerged with a clean sheet.
The match between Al-Duhail and Al-Shamal scored the largest number of goals (8 goals), and the yellow card was shown 21 times, while the red card was shown on one occasion, which went to Umm Salal player Khaled Abdul Raouf.
Al-Khor also remains the only team that has not achieved any victory this season so far.
Spaniard Marc Municia, defender of Al-Shahania, scored an own goal by mistake against Al-Ahly, and Mohamed Musa, defender of Al-Shamal, did the same against his former team Al-Duhail.
Egyptian Ahmed Abdel Qader scored the first penalty kick against Al-Khor, and Al-Moez Ali, Al-Duhail striker, scored the second penalty kick against Al-Shamal.
As for the overall statistics, 54 matches have been played so far (42 victories and 12 draws), and 184 goals were scored during 54 matches, at a rate of 3.4 goals per match, and yellow cards were raised 223 times, compared to 9 red cards recorded, and 21 penalty kicks (14 scored and 7 scored). “Wasted.”
In terms of scorers, Algerian Baghdad Bounedjah maintained the lead with 10 goals, followed by Spanish Rafa Mujica, Al Sadd striker, and Kenyan Michael Olunga (Al Duhail) with 8 goals.
Croatian Antonio Mansi (Umm Salal) and Brazilian Roger Guedish (Al Rayyan) scored six goals each.
Behind them were Edmilson Jr., Al-Moez Ali (Al-Duhail), Ricardo Gomez (Al-Wakrah), Omar Sekou (Al-Ahly), and Youssef Al-Maskani (Al-Arabi) with five goals each.
Three players scored 4 goals: Akram Afif (Al-Sadd), German Julian Draxler (Al-Ahly), and Dutchman Petrus Ammersfoort (Al-Shahania).
Al-Duhail leads the team standings with 22 points, then Al-Sadd comes in second place with 18 points, Al-Ahly is third with goal difference, Al-Gharafa is fourth with 15 points, Al-Wakrah is fifth with 14 points, and Umm Salal is sixth with 11 points, then Al-Rayyan is in seventh place with 10 points, with a difference. The goals went to Al-Shamal, eighth, Al-Arabi, ninth, Qatar, tenth, then Al-Shahaniya in eleventh place with 8 points, and in twelfth and last place, Al-Khor, with four points.
The tenth round will be held on November 22 due to the international pause in the AFC Champions League matches for the elite, as well as the 2026 World Cup qualifiers.
Al Rayyan will meet Al Shamal at Ahmed Bin Ali Stadium, Al Sadd will play with Al Khor at Al Khor Club Stadium, and Al Gharafa will face Al Wakrah at Thani Bin Jassim Stadium.
The round will conclude on November 23, when leaders Al-Duhail will play with Al-Arabi at Al-Thumama Stadium, Umm Salal will meet Al-Ahly at the Grand Hamad Stadium, while Qatar will face its counterpart, Al-Shahania, at Suhaim Bin Hamad Stadium.