Lekhwiya knew that they couldn’t afford to slip up against an Al Ahli side who is one of the best counter attacking teams in the league.

However they almost lost this round 12 clash that was played at the Grand Hamad stadium.

Meshal Abdulla Abdulla opened the scoring in the 10^th minute with a strong header to give the Brigadiers a perfect start against last season’s champions.

And that’s how it stayed until the 32^nd minute when Ismael Mohammed found the net after a perfectly weighted through-ball courtesy of Iraqi Hussein Ali Shehab.

Then some sloppy defending from Lekhwiya saw them gift a goal to Al Ahli in the 84^th minute. Weiss lost the ball after being pressured and Dioko seized the opportunity as he rounded the defender and smashed home his effort.

With just a few minutes of the game left and with Ahli leading it was once again Ismael Mohammed who saved the day for Lekhwiya. In the 4^th minute of extra time he pounced on a Weiss corner delivery after the initial clearance was messed up.

Laudrup looked relieved after it looked like the Red Knights would end the night with their second defeat of the season.

The result means that Lekhwiya stay in 2^nd but a 5 pint gap between themselves and Al Sadd has now appeared.

Al Ahli remains in 6^th with 20 points and can feel hard done by in a tight game where they quite clearly held their own.