Doha: Lekhwiya secured top spot in Group B and a place in the knock-out rounds of the AFC Champions League as goals by Luiz Martin and Khalid Muftah either side of half-time gave the Qatari side a 2-0 win over Saudi Arabia’s Al Ettifaq yesterday.
The two-time Qatar Stars League (QSL) champions only needed to avoid defeat at the Lekhwiya Club Stadium to book their place in the Round of 16 for the first time and Martin set them on their way with a sensational long-range effort after 11 minutes.
Muftah then struck on the counter-attack midway through the second half to give Lekhwiya their third straight home win which sets up a last 16 clash with Saudi giants Al Hilal.
“The players today had a great performance and they deserved to win the match and advance to the knockout stage,” said Lekhwiya coach Eric Gerets.
“We put in a lot of effort to qualify from this hard group and our efforts paid off at the end.
“We played very well tonight especially in the second half and we could have scored more than two goals. But the most important thing for us is that we qualified and hopefully we can do well in our next match in the Round of 16.”
While Lekhwiya entered the match as group leaders, their lead was tenuous as they were only a point ahead of Al Ettifaq and Uzbek champions Pakhtakor and two in front of last-placed Al Shabab Al Arabi. But Martin put any jitters that the home side might have had to rest with a superlative opening goal.
After a neat build-up, Martin received the ball just inside the Al Ettifaq half and exchanged a one-two with Ahmed El Sayed before he unleashed a fierce half-volley from 20 metres that arrowed into the bottom right corner of the net.
Having broken the deadlock, Martin nearly presented the visitors with a way back into the match in the 35th minute when he surrendered possession on the edge of his box to Yahia Al Shehri who played the ball on for Saleh Bashar to fire in a shot from 20 metres that goalkeeper Amine Lecomte did well to stop.
Al Ettifaq skipper Carlos shot narrowly wide just two minutes into the second half but there would be no way back for the visitors when Muftah extended Lekhwiya’s lead in the 66th minute.
He was sent clear on the left flank by an excellent through pass by Karim Boudiaf and sprinted clear of the Al Ettifaq defence before firing an angled left-footed shot across Al Subaiei and inside the far post.
Lekhwiya had several opportunities to add a third in the closing minutes as Nam Tae-hee and Adil Ahmed both squandered chances.
Lekhwiya is the second team which will feature in the knock-out stage of the tournament. Eljaish, who finished second in Group A are the other team which made it to the last sixteen stage. Agencies
