Pierre Lasogga struck a brace as Al Arabi became the first side to book a place in the Amir Cup semi-finals with a 3-0 win over Al Ahli yesterday. The quarter-final encounter at the Abdullah bin Khalifa Stadium was a lopsided affair as Arabi completely dominated an Al Ahli side, which struggled for full 90 minutes.
The scoreline could have got much worse for Ahli, but for some poor finishing by Arabi players. Ahli’s defence was shambolic on the night, as they were beaten for pace repeatedly by forwards Lasogga and Hamdi Harbaoui. Arabi, who are unbeaten in four matches in QNB Stars League, had defeated Ahli twice in the league this season and the Heimer Hallgrimsson’s men maintained the stronghold on their rivals.
Arabi went 1-0 up in the sixth minute after Ahli’s Mohamed Abdulnaser al-Abbasi gave the ball away in the midfield which was latched on to by Ahmed Fathi Abdulla. The Arabi skipper then found Lasogga, who beat goalkeeper Ivanildo Rodrigues in one-on-one with a cool finish.
Arabi’s lead increased in the 22nd minute with Abdulla and Lasogga involved in the action again. Abdulla charged from the right hand side and struck fiercely, which brushed past Rodrigues and hit the post. The rebound, however, fell into the lap of Lasogga, who tapped into the empty net.
With momentum in their side, and Ahli midfield and defence totally disorganised, Arabi went for the kill but Harbaoui wasted couple of easy chances.
The second half played out in a similar manner, with Arabi enjoying most of the possession. In the 58th minute, Harbaoui spurned a golden opportunity but with just Rodrigues to beat the Tunisian forward’s heavy touch sailed into the stands.
Ahli had a rare chance to score in the 60th minute as captain Nabil El-Zhar found himself in the Arabi box, but took one too many touches before shooting wide. Arabi sealed the game in the 69th minute, with substitute Khalaf Saad Khalifa finding the net after a deflection off a defender. Lasogga had a chance for hat-trick in the 72nd minute but the German forward’s strike came off the post.
“I think we started very well and we deserved to get in front. We should have ideally scored a lot more as we had lots of chances. We played very well and are happy to be in the semifinals,” said Lasogga.  
The former VfL Wolfsburg and Bayer Leverkusen striker said Arabi will take it one game at a time as they seek to reach their first Amir Cup final in 26 years. In the semis, they will take on winners of the second quarter-final between Al Markhiya and Al Rayyan, which will be played today.
“I think in a Cup anything is possible. We want to take one game at a time and we will give our best. I think we have been playing well in QSL, so we just have to continue doing well,” Lasogga added.
Ahli have shown improvement after Nebojsa Jovovic took over the reins in December and are eighth in the league, but yesterday they were well below-par, which defender Shane Long acknowledged.
“We are disappointed. We went 2-0 down quickly and made ourselves with so much to do. We came back much better in the second half but overall we didn’t deserve to win today,” Long said.
“We just got to move on to the league now. We have a quality side but this was just a one-off poor game. Today, Arabi were far better, we just have to shrug it off and focus on the league now,” added the Australian.

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