Al Rayyan held off Al Arabi challenge to emerge as 3-2 winners in the last match in Week 15 of the 2023-2024 season Expo Stars League at the Al Thumama Stadium on Friday.

Roger Guedes scored a hat-trick, striking in the 22nd, 47th and 56th minute (penalty), while Yousef Msakni (49th minute) and Omar Al Somah (76th-minute penalty) scored for Al Arabi.

Al Rayyan also lost a man in the 74th minute of the match when Ahmed Al Minhali was flashed with a red card for stepping on the toes of an Al Arabi player just at the top of the box.

Much as expected, the contest lived up to its billing with an electric see-saw affair which saw Al Arabi almost equalizing in stoppage time but for an offside as The Lions moved on with another win over the rivals following their 1-0 result in the first-leg match.

Their ninth win of the season saw Al Rayyan climb up to third spot with 28 points (sharing points with Al Wakrah in fourth place) from 14 matches, while Al Arabi remained on 18 points.

The Lions gained the lead with an unmarked Al Minhali moving down the left to produce a perfect diagonal cross for Guedes to score.

Al Arabi tried to find an equalizer, but only had a couple of half chances including one in the 39th minute when Omar Al Somah’s long free-kick strike was superbly kept away by Al Rayyan goalkeeper Fahad Younis.

Al Rayyan then struck again soon in the second half as a Guedes free-kick hit the wall and deflected into goal deceiving the goalkeeper (2-0).

Two minutes later, Al Arabi hit back, getting their first goal as Msakni headed in a fine corner kick which went in after touching the hand of the diving goalkeeper (2-1).

The contest became livelier, with both sides now looking to attack more. Soon, Al Rayyan’s Achraf Bencharki moved in from the left and was tackled with a foul by Jassem Jaber near the goalline and the referee signalled for a penalty. Guedes scored with ease thereby completing his hat-trick as Al Rayyan went up (3-1).

A frantic Al Arabi now tried harder pushing up the attack and were awarded with a penalty when Al Minhali stepped on to one of their player’s toes just at the top of the box. Al Somah took the spot kick to score and make the score 3-2.

The chances of Al Arabi making it 3-3 loomed large and with 10 added minutes, The Dream Team were all over the rival defence. Just in the dying moments, substitute Rami Suhail leapt to head a lob successfully, but Al Somah was already offside and the flag was up and rightly.