Al Gharafa rallied from being a goal down to beat Al Wakrah 3-1 in Week 10 of the 2024-2025 season Ooredoo Stars League at the Thani Bin Jassim Stadium of Al Gharafa club on Friday, November 22, 2024.

While Al Wakrah went up the lead through a penalty kick in the 20th minute scored by Ricardo Gomes, Al Gharafa hit back with goals from Ahmed Al Janahi (45+2 minute), Joselu (60th minute) and an own goal from Lucas Mendes (75th minute).

The win pitchforked Al Gharafa into the top three of the rankings with a tally of 18 points, ahead of Al Ahli in fourth on goal difference, whereas Al Wakrah remained on 14 points.

Despite gaining an early advantage, Al Wakrah also suffered from many of their own mistakes as Al Gharafa gained ground to make amends.

Al Wakrah won the penalty after Ayoub Assal was brought down inside the box by Seydou Sano and Gomes stepped up to score.

Both teams then had equal share of exchanges until the added time of opening half when Ferjani Sassi made a fine lob from the midfield for an unmarked Al Janahi to run in and beat a challenging Mendes to get the equalizer.

Al Gharafa then moved into the lead with their star player Yacine Brahimi dribbling his way past Al Wakrah’s Yousef Tarek Al Khatib to provide the ball for Joselu to score.

Minutes later, Al Wakrah’s Hamdy Fathy, when being face to face with Al Gharafa goalkeeper Khalifa Ababacar, made the mistake of playing the ball to his left and thereby missing out on a striking chance.

Al Wakrah attacked again and this time an Assal kick was cut off by Ababacar.

The Blue Wave came back again and this time made a double strike with Assal going first and Fathy trying on the rebound from Ababacar, but to no avail.

Al Gharafa hit back as Brahimi forced his way into the danger area. He was tackled by Alexander Scholz but despite falling down, Brahimi was back up and went on to beat a charging goalkeeper Mohammed Al Bakri. The Algerian’s kick found Mendes in the way who in the scramble deflected it into his own goal.

Three minutes later, Al Wakrah’s Jacinto Dala made a diagonal strike, but the ball hit the bottom of the left post, much to their dismay.