Al Wakrah scored a rollicking 5-1 win over Al Shamal in Week 19 of the 2022-2023 season QNB Stars League at the Al Wakrah Stadium on Thursday.

The win took The Blue Wave into the top four of the league rankings. They now have a tally of 30 points from 19 games, while Al Shamal are ninth with 17 points from 18 matches.

Al Wakrah led 1-0 at half-time only to return to fire on all cylinders in the second session.

Yousef Abdurisag (17th minute), Jacinto Dala (74th and 80th minutes), Mohamed Benyettou (77th minute) and Murad Naji (85th minute) were the goal scorers for Al Wakrah, while Yacine Bammou (57th minute) got Al Shamal’s only goal.

Al Shamal began brightly and were also soon making some strong tackles and in the 14th minute, their player Abdelaziz Metwali was shown the first yellow card of the match.

The see-saw battle’s complexion changed soon as Abdurisag latched on to a ball while ensuring he was not offside to pump in the opening goal of the match.

Al Shamal then tried to pull it back, but could not succeed. In the 26th minute, Al Shamal’s Ali Olwan shaped into a good position to strike, but his kick went over.

The equalizer came post break as Bammou picked a Rabeh Boussafi pass to take it on his chest, control and swing it past a hapless goalkeeper into the net.

Al Wakrah, however, broke past the rival team’s defences late in the second half to steal the show. Their star striker Dala scored two goals to again go up as the leading goal-scorer of the league with a total of 15 to his name.

Benyettou and Naji went on to add one each as their fans rejoiced at The Blue Wave’s climb up the rankings.