Santi Cazorla continued to weave his magic as the experienced midfielder played another starring role in Al Sadd’s 5-1 thrashing over Al Sailiya in the QNB Stars League at the Education City Stadium yesterday.
In a late match, Al Rayyan beat Al Gharafa 3-1 thanks to Yohan Boli’s brace. Boli scored in the 25th and 71st minute, while Yacine Brahimi also found the net in the added time. For Gharafa, Jonathan Kodjia in the 90th minute.
Earlier, Former Arsenal star Cazorla, who joined from Villarreal last month on a free transfer, scored once and gave assists for two goals. Other goals scorers yesterday were Hassan al-Haydos (seventh minute), Baghdad Bounedjah (59th minute), Nam Tae-Hee (82nd minute) and substitute Ahmed Bader Sayyar (88th minute). Captain Majdi Siddiq gave Al Sailiya’s sole reply in the 41st minute.
Incidentally, it was by the same scoreline that Al Sadd had beaten Al Kharaitiyat in their opening match. Al Sailiya, who had held Al Rayyan to a 1-1 draw in their first game, remained on one point. 
The Peregrines had reinforced their squad ahead of the 2020-21 season and were expected to give Al Sadd a stiff challenge, but found themselves at the receiving end.
Sadd braced well for their campaign in the 2020 AFC Champions League, which will resume on 14th September with all West Zone matches being scheduled in Doha, in fine fashion. Sadd showed no let-up and the opening onslaught saw Nam almost score in the first minute, but for an alert goalkeeper Amine Lecomte.
Bounedjah then missed a header, but The Wolves were not to be denied for long as al-Haydos started the scoring act by chipping the ball in after he received a long pass from Cazorla and darted into the area. Cazorla doubled the lead by converting a penalty, awarded when Sailiya’s Ahmed al-Menhali fouled Pedro Miguel as the latter was about to cross the ball from the right inside the box. Sailiya’s Mashaal al-Shammari hit one over the bar and Tiago Bezerra wasted a free-kick before Majdi reduced the margin with a long-range shot that resulted from a corner kick taken by Nadir Belhadj. 
Bounedjah’s headed clearance of the corner went straight to Majdi, who beat Al Sadd goalkeeper Saad al-Dossari at the far corner. Mashaal came close to scoring in first-half injury time, but he failed to connect the ball with only the goalkeeper to beat. Sailiya’s Ahmed Hammoudan was thwarted twice in the 51st minute, first by al-Dossari and then by Boualem Khoukhi. Bounedjah made it 3-1 off a pass by Cazorla and Nam found the target with a rising shot from the top of the box that gave no chance to Lecomte. Ahmed Sayyar rounded off the tally with a neat finish as Al Sadd cruised to an easy victory.
 
Kharaitiyat stun Qatar SC 
Meanwhile, promoted Al Kharaitiyat scored a shock 2-1 win over SC 2-1 at the Al Gharafa Stadium. Mohamed Osman (20th-minute penalty) scored for Kharaitiyat, who were helped by an own goal by Qatar SC’s Kayke Rodriguez in the 50th minute. Elmehdi Barrahma scored Qatar SC’s goal in the 75th minute.
In the process, Al Kharaitiyat, coached by Yousef Adam, made up for their 1-5 loss to Al Sadd in their opener, while Qatar SC crashed to their second defeat, having earlier lost 0-2 to Al Gharafa.
Kharaitiyat had finished at the bottom in the 2018-19 season and were relegated. However, they got back to the First Division by emerging as winners in this season’s Second Division.
After Al Kharaitiyat’s Rachid Tiberkanine hit wide of the target in the 16th minute,  they surged ahead through Osman’s penalty conversion. It was awarded when Elmehdi Barrahma tripped Tiberkanine. Kayke accidentally headed into his own goal five minutes after resumption of play off a corner kick taken by Mahmoud Saad. Barrahma and Qatar SC had some sort of consolation as he volleyed home a header by Sardor Rashidov off a free-kick by Nasser Ibrahim.
Qatar SC had dropped many points in the first leg of 2019-20 QNB Stars League, but they more than made up for it with a series of positive results in the tournament’s latter session to finish eighth. 
The Kings are under the technical supervision of ex-Qatar international midfielder Younis Ali, who replaced another former medio of the Qatar national team Wesam Rizik.
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