Al Gharafa beat Al Shamal 3-2 in an exciting Week 15 opening encounter of 2022-2023 season QNB Stars League at the Al Gharafa Stadium on Monday.

Al Gharafa rallied to bounce back from the deficit twice to overcome a strong Al Shamal, who led 2-1 at half-time.

While Ali Olwan (10th minute) and Rabeh Boussafi (44th minute) scored the goals for Al Shamal, Ahmed Alaaeldin (38th and 59th minutes) and Ishak Beldofil (49th minute) did the scoring for Al Gharafa.

The brace from Alaaeldin – both goals scored through diving headers – stood out spectacularly.

The valuable three points took Al Gharafa’s tally to 22.

Al Shamal still remain in the danger zone with 10 points.

The start from Al Shamal was good and they took the lead as Olwan made a fine move down the middle and then following a return of his pass from Boussafi, he shot from outside the box and the ball deflected off a defender’s foot on its way into the goal.

Al Shamal then had a chance to double their lead in the 33rd minute, but Moustafa Tarek’s kick just missed the right post.

Six minutes later, Belfodil from the right provided a cross for an unmarked Alaaeldin to make a dive to head the dipping ball into the net.

Al Shamal hit back soon as just before half-time while trying to defend a cross, Al Gharafa’s Islom Khujaev deflected the ball towards a lurking Boussafi, who moved up to left-foot it into the goal.

Al Gharafa soon restored parity again as Belfodil made the most of Farid Boulaya’s hard work of breaking into the penalty area. With Boulaya passing the ball back to Belfodil, the Algerian striker did well to hold back a chasing defender to strike in time to make the score 2-2.

Then followed the winning goal for Al Gharafa which was created by a fast-moving Homam Al Ameen from the left and he sent in a lob into the centre of the ‘D’ for a diving Alaaeldin to connect the ball mid-air in a spectacular header.

The game continued to produce more absorbing moments and a few yellow cards were flashed. But all efforts of Al Shamal were well-foiled by Al Gharafa.