Al Rayyan helped the Qatar Stars League (QSL) welcome in the New Year with a 1-0 win over Al Shahania at the Grand Hamad Stadium in the first game of 2017 and first in this week’s Round 14 fixtures.Al Shahania, who are currently staring at a relegation battle with 12 points after registering just two wins so far this season, were hoping to bounce back from their heaviest ever defeat after receiving a ten goal thumping by Lekhwiya at the end of 2016 and give their new Head Coach, Croatian Igor Stemac, a good start to 2017. That wasn’t to be though as Al Rayyan dominated from the whistle and bounced back after losing to Al Khor in Round 13 to claim all three points.
Laudrup’s men got the new year off to a good start thanks to an early goal from their number 7, Ahmed Alaaeldin, who scored on the 12th minute with a fine header. After getting in front of his marker inside Al Shahania’s 18 yard box, Alaaeldin leapt well to connect with a fast cross delivered from the right wing. Despite Al Shahania’s goalkeeper getting a fingertip to the ball, it was too high and had too much pace and went in off the underside of the cross bar to give Al Rayyan the lead.
Al Shahania, who were camped in their own half for much of the first half thanks to some decent possession play from Al Rayyan, had their best chance of the first half when they were awarded a free kick in a dangerous area after Fahad Khalfan countered and was brought down by Al Rayyan’s Gonzalo Viera just outside the box. Instead of shooting, Al Shahania went for what looked like a training ground routine and flicked it out to the left wing for a cross which was nearly converted by Khalfan who was lurking on the back post. Al Rayyan’s goalkeeper, Oumar Barry, somehow managed to get down to his left post in time and save it to ensure Al Rayyan went into the halftime break 1-0 up.
It was one way traffic in the second half as Al Rayyan set about looking for some additional decisive goals. Laudrup’s men should have finished the game three or four up after a glut of chances and Alaaeldin should have left with a hat trick after missing a handful of easy chances. The first of which fell to him on the 67th minute when he found himself on the end of a squared cross from Abdulrahman Al-Harazi just six yards out and one on one with the goalkeeper. He instead hit the ball straight at the goalkeeper and it was cleared by an incoming defender.
Chances kept falling to Alaaeldin and Al Rayyan and their Captain Rodrigo Tabata came tantalising close on the 88th minute after he watched his shot trickle along the length of the goal line. Al Rayyan couldn’t find the back of the net again though and instead saw the game out with a slim 1-0 lead to give Michael Laudrup a nervy closing ten minutes.
The three points leave Al Rayyan in 4th position in the QSL league with 25 points.
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