Al Gharafa’s Slovakian midfielder Vladimír Weiss celebrates after scoring his second goal against Al Khor yesterday.
A brace from former Rangers winger Valdimir Weiss fired Al Gharafa to a resounding 3-0 win over ten-men Al Khor in the Fourth-Round match of the QNB Stars League (QSL) at Al Gharafa Stadium yesterday.
The 27-year-old struck two goals within a span of seven minutes to take the game away from the visitors to give the Cheetahs their first win of the QSL season.
Al Gharafa now have a tally of five points from four matches with one win and two draws, while Al Khor remain on four points with one win and a draw.
Both the teams started with a flourish, aiming to control the midfield play and had an equal share of ball possession in the first quarter of the match.
The picture changed in the next quarter with Al Gharafa dictating terms.
Al Gharafa broke open through the rival defense in the 22nd minute.
Portuguese striker Diogo Carlos Amado positioned himself for the damage and timed his jump to perfection to meet a cross from Yousuf Muftah to give Al Gharafa the lead.
Five minutes from the goal, Al Khor suffered a body blow when goalkeeper Lecoumet Kloud Amin got the red card from referee Khamis Al Marri.
Al Khor defender Mohamed Sayyar challenged Al Gharafa striker Youssef Hassan and the ball ran loose on the top of the box forcing Amin to leave his charge to clear the ball but in the process the goalkeeper was penalized as having brought down the rival striker.
Amin saw the red from the referee and an indirect free kick was awarded, but nothing came out of it.
Thereafter, Al Gharafa raised the tempo of the proceedings and came up with varied combinations to trouble the rival defense. Using both the flanks, Al Gharafa playmakers kept Al Khor guessing.
Although Al Gharafa could not add more goals in the first half their game plan of using the aerial balls to break the defense worked to a plan and it bore results again in the second half.
Al Gharafa stuck 11 minutes into the second half, with Weiss heading home a cross to beat the Al Khor keeper and yet again penalised the Al Khor defense for their sloppy piece of aerial defending, 2-0.
Seven minutes later, the Slovakian striker was in the thick of action again.
Weiss struck for the second time in the match after been put through and finished the move by getting past the advancing rival keeper and slotting the ball into an unguarded goal.
Thereafter, Al Gharafa tried hard to increase their tally but could not trouble the scorers and had to content with the 3-0 verdict.
Later yesterday, brilliant double by Yannick Sagbo powered Umm Salal to a formidable 4-1 win against Al Arabi at Al Gharafa Stadium.
Al Sailiyah beat Al Kharaitiyat 2-1 at Al Ahli Stadium.
