Al Gharafa scored a 4-0 win over Al Wakrah in Week 13 of the 2022-2023 season QNB Stars League at the Al Duhail Stadium on Saturday.
Homam Al Ameen with a brace (18th and 75th minutes), Yacine Brahimi (54th minute) and Muayad Hassan (63rd minute) scored the goals.
The win and the valuable three points saw Al Gharafa move on to 19 points, while Al Wakrah stood on 18 points.
The Cheetahs made their intentions clear from the very start making a charge in the very second minute of play off a corner kick, but Abdalla Yousef could not connect well in front of the goal.
It did not take long for Al Gharafa to drive in their opening goal. With a miss pass of the rivals latched on, ball moved to Brahimi in the centre and he quickly passed it to his left to Homam who ran in to score striking past Murad Naji and to the left of goalkeeper Khalifa Ababacar.
Al Wakrah then tried hard to rally and had the hopes of a penalty raised just before half-time after Mohamed Benyettou who ran into the D was brought down by a sliding rival goalkeeper Yousef Hassan. But a VAR check confirmed that he was offside.
The added time in the opening half saw some frantic moves from both teams, but none succeeded.
In the second half, Brahimi quickly swung into the spotlight as he broke into the box from top left and moved in ferociously beating the defenders and the goalkeeper with a strong kick which hit the left corner of the net.
Al Gharafa’s third goal came from a superb run of Ishak Belfodil down the left before he sent the ball, from near the goal line, to an onrushing Homam to score with the goalkeeper already down and beaten by Belfodil.
The Cheetahs capped off their super win with a fourth goal as a long ball put Brahimi in the clear and he sent in a cross for Muayad to complete the formality, much to the delight of their fans.