Al Rayyan defeated Muaither 1-0 for a valuable win in Week 20 of the 2023-2024 season Expo Stars League at the Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium on Sunday.

The Lions’ win was realized through an alert strike from Achraf Bencharki in the 29th minute of the match. And while Muaither, who otherwise gave a good account of themselves throughout against the fancied rivals, did try their best to fetch the equalizer, it remained elusive .

The result saw Al Rayyan move into third in the rankings with 38 points, while Muaither remained in 11th place with 14 points.

Muaither had made a spirited start to the game, with one of their free-kicks going over the rival goal in the 22nd minute.

Two minutes later, Muaither goalkeeper Ivanildo Rodrigues made a fine save after Al Rayyan’s Roger Guedes dribbled through inside the ‘D’ to strike hard.

Muaither’s hopes were, however, dashed soon as Al Rayyan won a free-kick almost 30 yards away from the box. Rodrigo Tabata, who took the kick, sent the ball into the centre of the danger zone and Yazan Al Arab reached high with his left foot and in the process unsighted an advancing Rodrigues as the ball fell to an unmarked Bencharki who gleefully made a high-centre into the goal with a left kick.

In the second session, Muaither were further pushed back by a charging Al Rayyan.

In the 59th minute, The Lions almost doubled their lead as Guedes made a dangerous strike from inside right and Rodrigues leapt to his right to make a save, but the ball rolled along the line to hit the left post before the goalkeeper managed to retrieve it again.

In the 78th minute, Guedes had another shy at the goal following inside the box action, but this time his kick was feeble and went straight to the goalkeeper.

Minutes later, Muaither’s Tiago De Leonco drove one hard, but it went straight to Al Rayyan goalkeeper Fahad Younis.

This was Al Rayyan’s second successive win after they beat Al Duhail 2-0 in Week 19, whereas Muaither suffered their 11th loss of the season and after they had defeated Umm Salal 2-1 in their previous game.