QSL: Ebrahimi scores to help Al Shamal close gap on league leaders [VIDEO]

Gulf-times.com – AL KHOR, Al Shamal boos­ted their chances of win­ning the Qatar Stars League title for the first time in their his­tory with a thrill­ing 3-2 vic­tory over Umm Salal at Al Bayt Sta­dium yes­ter­day, while lead­ers Al Sadd were held to a 1-1 draw by Al Rayyan in the ‘Qatar Clasico.’

Al Shamal raised their points tally to 37, strength­en­ing their hold on second place and nar­row­ing the gap with Sadd to just two points after the lead­ers dropped points earlier in the even­ing. Shamal also have a post­poned match from Round 17 against

Qatar SC sched­uled at Al Khor Sta­dium on April 13. Vic­tory in that fix­ture would see them move to the top of the stand­ings before cru­cial clashes against Al Shahan­iya in Round 21 and Al Sadd in the final round of the sea­son.

In con­trast, Umm Salal remained stuck in the releg­a­tion zone, with their tally unchanged at 20 points in 10th place in the pro­vi­sional stand­ings, just three points ahead of bot­tom side Al Shahan­iya.

Al Shamal made a fly­ing start as Omid Ebrahimi con­ver­ted a pen­alty in the sixth minute after Omar Mohamed was fouled inside the area. Bagh­dad Bouned­jah doubled the lead deep into first-half added time, giv­ing Al Shamal a com­fort­able cush­ion head­ing into the break.

Alex Col­lado exten­ded the advant­age in the 59th minute, his deflec­ted effort beat­ing goal­keeper Rami Hamada fol­low­ing a pre­cise pass from Bouned­jah.

Umm Salal moun­ted a late comeback when Ant­o­nio Mance struck from long range in the 75th minute before Yamaan Jar­rar added another eight minutes later, but Al Shamal held firm to secure a vital vic­tory in the title race.