Firmino scores as Al Sadd blank Al Gharafa, Guedes gives Al Rayyan win over Al Duhail

DOHA: Roberto Firmino opened his account for Al Sadd with a clinical strike, while Roger Guedes netted the decisive goal for Al Rayyan, as both sides...

DOHA: Roberto Firmino opened his account for Al Sadd with a clinical strike, while Roger Guedes netted the decisive goal for Al Rayyan, as both sides picked up key victories in the Qatar Stars League yesterday.

At the Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium, defending champions Al Sadd continued their resurgence with a dominant 2-0 win over Al Gharafa.

Al Sadd, coached by Felix Sanchez, showed no signs of the early slip against Qatar SC and produced a powerful display to hand Pedro Martins’ Al Gharafa their first defeat of the season. The Wolves opened the scoring early, with Youcef Atal finding the net in just the fourth minute. The Algerian full-back surged in from the right and fired a low drive into the far corner.

Al Gharafa thought they had equalised three minutes later, but Mohammed Muntari’s header from Yacine Brahimi’s free-kick was ruled out for offside.