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Tribune News NetworkDohaLast season’s quarter-finalists Al Arabi made a winning start to their QNB Stars League 2022-23 season campaign handing 10-man Qatar Sports Club 2-0 defeat in their Week 1 clash at the Education City Stadium on Tuesday.Qatari Ahmed Fathi (70th minute) and substitute Ibrahim Nasser Kalla (90th minute) scored the goals for Al Arabi, fetching them three valuable points.Qatar Sports Club suffered a setback when their captain Sebastian Soria was shown the red card by referee Salman Falahi in the 59th minute of the match. Soria, while trying to charge with the ball, had brought down Al Arabi’s Fatehi who was running alongside.Soria was earlier cautioned with a yellow card in the 16th minute after fouling against rival captain Abdulla Al Marafi.Al Arabi coach Younes Ali said his team’s victory of well deserved. “We played a good first half and dominated the game, but we lacked the finishing touch on the goal. In the second half the situation improved and the advantage was with us and opening goal paved the way for the second.“The first matches of the season are always difficult, and it was important to win.” After a goalless first half and Soria’s departure in the second, Al Arabi who had failed to make good of a few chances gained momentum. Their star winger Youssef Msakni had a chance to score in the 67th minute but failed to get hold of the ball, from a pass from forward Aaron Boupendza, when in front of the goal.Eventually, Al Arabi scored the first goal in the 70th minute when Msakni set up a pass inside the box for Fatehi to score off a deflection from the rival goalkeeper Sataa Al Abbasi, who till then had done a good job under the bar.An alert Fatehi latched on to the ball after Aaron’s kick from the right bounced back off the goalkeeper’s hands.The lead for Al Arabi saw the game slow down somewhat before substitute Kalla produced a super shot in the 90th minute. It was a thrilling strike as Kalla running in from the right swung into action straightaway and when inside the penalty area was given a superb back heel pass by Al Marafi. Kalla shot it perfectly and into the goal.Earlier in the 24th minute, Msakni and Qatar SC’s Khaled Mahmoudi were involved in an unfortunate head collision while going for the ball. The two players were immediately attended to by the medical teams for six minutes. Both players were back in action despite suffering cuts go their cheeks.Al Arabi were the more aggressive of the two sides and had 10 shots on target as compared to Qatar Sports Club’s 3. And while Qatar Sports Club received 4 yellow cards, Al Arabi had 1.Al Arabi coach praised the fighting spirit of his players and their determination to win. Looking ahead he said, “We play Al Rayyan in the next round and we have to prepare well for it.”
