Yacine Brahimi bagged a brace as Al Gharafa defeated Al Wakrah 4-2 in Week 21 of the 2023-2024 season Expo Stars League at the Saoud Bin Abdulrahman Stadium of Al Wakrah club on Wednesday.

Al Gharafa's goals came through Brahimi (59th and 66th-minute penalty), Ferjani Sassi (22nd minute) and Ahmed Al Janehi (73rd minute), while Ayoub Assal (47th minute) and Mohamed Benyettou (53rd minute) scored for Al Wakrah.

With the result, Al Gharafa moved on to 44 points, while Al Wakrah stood on 38 points.

The match was evenly balanced considering the strengths of both teams and their rankings in the table ahead of the game. Al Wakrah entered the match in fourth place in the standings, while Al Gharafa were third.

There were many opportunities on both ends in the first few minutes of the game, but unfortunately none of the strikers were clinical enough to finish off the chances.

The situation eventually changed in the 22nd minute following a brilliant defense-splitting pass from Farid Boulaya, which connected well with Sassi  who wasted no time in slotting home with a left-footed low shot to give Al Gharafa the lead.

Much as Al Wakrah tried to restore parity, the scoreline, however, remained the same as they headed for the dugout at the end of first half.

Al Wakrah came out with a bang in the second half and it took them just two minutes to restore parity, with Assal finding the back of the net from an Nasser Al Yazidi assist.

By the 53rd minute, Al Wakrah turned their initial one-goal deficit into a goal advantage, as Benyettou gave The Blue Wave the lead from a Lucas Mendes assist, but Brahimi registered his name on the scorers sheet six minutes later, from a brilliant assist by Fabricio Diaz to get Al Gharafa the equaliser.

Things began to heat up as the match wore on, with both sides determined to run away with the maximum points with only one game left before the end of the season.

Against the run of play, Brahimi got his second of the night and Al Gharafa’s third from the spot in the 67th minute.

Six minutes later, it was the turn of Al Janehi to compound the woes of Al Wakrah after taking advantage of a miscued header by Al Wakrah’s Rabeh Boussafi and then rounding up the back-tracking winger before slotting home a cool right-footed shot to make it 4-2 for The Cheetahs.

Tried as much as Al Wakrah did to get back into the game, Al Gharafa refused to buckle under pressure as they withstood their ground to run away with the much-needed victory.