Umm Salal came from a goal down to defeat Al Arabi 2-1 in the postponed match from Week 13 of the 2023-2024 season Expo Stars League at the Thani Bin Jassim Stadium of Al Gharafa club on Wednesday.

Kenji Gorre (63rd minute) and Oussama Tannane (84th minute) got the goals for Umm Salal after Mohammed Al Taaboni had given Al Arabi the lead in the 23rd minute.

With the result, Umm Salal now have 24 points, a relative safe distance away from the relegation zone, while Al Arabi remained on 26 points.

The match was evenly balanced for most of the first half, with chances far and in between, with each side guilty of wasting some quality chances.

The situation, however, changed in the 23rd minute when Al Arabi’s Marco Verratti’s lofted pass perfectly located Al Taaboni, who only had goalkeeper Landing Badji to beat, which he did beautifully, to give The Dream Team a dream opener.

Al Arabi gradually began to assert themselves in the game from thereon, pegging Umm Salal to a defensive role as the match wore on.

A penalty call by Al Arabi in the second minute of injury time was denied, following what seemed to be a pull on Yousef Msakni by Umm Salal’s Adel Alawi in a shooting position inside Umm Salal’s 18-yard box, despite vociferous protests by the Al Arabi players and bench. The lone goal separated the two sides as they headed for the dugout at the end of first half.

In an attempt to grab the needed equaliser, Umm Salal made a triple substitution at halftime, with Omar Yahya coming in for Abdulrahman Al Rashidi, Naim Laidouni being substituted for Ilyas Brimil and Khaled Al Zereiqi replacing Abdelrahman Raafat.

The decision seemed to pay off as Umm Salal became more aggressive upfront, which led them to level up in the 63rd minute, with Gorre getting on the score sheet with a left-footed low shot from a Lucas Joao assist.

The pendulum began to swing in The Orange Fortress’ favour from thereon as they became more emboldened with their frequent incursion into Al Arabi’s territory in search of the winning goal, which eventually came in the 84th minute through Tannane, who finished off a Gorre sublime pass with an outstanding out-of-the-box left-footed curling shot to put Umm Salal in front in the highly-entertaining encounter.

The goal proved to be very pivotal as Umm Salal ended the match with the maximum points in their kitty.