Gabriel Pereira (right) celebrates after scoring Al Rayyan's third goal.
Doha, Qatar: Al Rayyan SC cruised to a dominant 4-1 victory over Oman’s Al Nahda Club in their AFC Champions League (ACL) Two 2026/27 Group C clash in Muscat yesterday.
The win lifted the Qatari side to six points at the halfway stage of the group campaign, while Al Nahda remained at the bottom with just one point.
Al Rayyan signalled their intentions as early as the second minute when Ibrahim Mohammadali collected the ball on the left flank and drove towards goal before sending his effort into the side netting.
From the same left channel, the visitors took the lead a minute later, this time Wesley Ribeiro dribbled past one defender then saw his shot take a slight deflection off Ghanim Al Habashi but enough to wrong-foot goalkeeper Faiyz Al Rusheidi.
The Qatari side continued to press on and in the 19th minute, doubled their advantage when Mohammadali floated in a cross from the right for defender Youssef Ayman to head past Al Rusheidi.
With a comfortable lead, Al Rayyan eased the pressure and that allowed Al Nahda the chance to go forward with Alfaraj Al Kiyumi and Karim Darwich getting opportunities but neither attempts troubled Mahmoud Abunada.
Al Rayyan missed a great chance to extend their lead two minutes into the second half after Gabriel Pereira released Aleksandar Mitrovic into space, only for the Serbian to rush his effort wide.
Al Nahda were awarded a penalty in the 49th minute after Andre Amaro used his hand to block Jamal Al Washi’s shot but Jameel Al Yahmadi’s shot was stopped by Abunada. The home side were given another chance from 12 yards in the 59th minute following Julien de Sart’s foul on Valon Ahmedi and this time, Mohammed Mubarak made no mistake with his penalty.
Any hope that Al Nahda had that the goal would spark a comeback came crashing down five minutes later when Pereira’s strike from outside the box packed too much power and accuracy for Al Rusheidi.
The home side went down to 10 men in the 80th minute when Harib Al Saadi picked up his second yellow card for a strong challenge on Ribeiro as Al Rayyan took the opportunity to add a fourth through Mohammadali seven minutes later to wrap up the win. (AFC)
