League leaders Lekhwiya produced a strong performance to defeat Al Arabi 3-1, despite being a goal down early in the game and having being reduced to 10-men in the 68th minute.

Al Arabi was playing at home at the Grand Hamad stadium and produced a stunning start to the game when they scored in the very first ten seconds through new signing Sergio Dutra Junior. It was exactly the kind of start that Arabi needed to take the fight to current champions. It would prove to be one of the fastest goals in QSL history.

Lekhwiya were a bit taken aback by the early goal, they slowly regained their composure and started building their attacks. That is not to say that Arabi went on the back foot. Both teams were eager to score a goal as the game went through a patchy period with neither team dominating the possession.

 Lekhwiya then found the equalizer when Nam Tae-Hee converted the penalty in the 36th minute. This goal saw the momentum swing back in visitors favour as they slowly gained the momentum going into the break.

In the second half, Lekhwiya upped their tempo and started to stretch the Arabi defence more and more. They were rewarded for their efforts in the 53rd minute when they took the lead through the mercurial winger Ismail Mohamed.

Then another twist in the match occurred when Sebastian Soria was given a red card in the 68th minute. This changed the complexion of the match again and Arabi found their rhythm once more.

Despite stringing together a few good attacks they couldn’t find the killer pass. Lekhwiya, then showed their quality when despite being a man down, started to attack the Arabi defence. The defending champions were rewarded in the 85th minute when Khalid Muftah found the back of the net to consolidate their lead.

The match ended with both teams on almost equal possession percentage – 51 for Arabi and 49 for Lekhwiya. Lekhwiya had 23 attempts on goal with eight of them on target. Arabi had 15 attempts with seven on target. 

So despite a stutter at the start, Lekhwiya have managed to come away victorious and take another major step to defending their crown.

With this loss, Arabi have now slipped to ninth place in the standings, one place below the resurgent Al Kharaitiyat.