Al Sadd blanked Al Arabi 5-0 in Week 3 of the 2024-2025 season Ooredoo Stars League at the Jassim bin Hamad Stadium of Al Sadd club on Thursday.

It was a second successive win in the league for the defending champions who ran roughshod over the rivals. Al Sadd led 3-0 at half time.

Spanish star Rafael Mujica scored a hat-trick (eighth-minute penalty, 26th and 89th minutes) for Al Sadd, while Akram Afif (19th minute) and Giovani Henrique (60th minute) got one each.

Almost nothing seemed to go Al Arabi’s way right from the start. And while VAR ruled out a penalty against them in the very fifth minute of play, they were not as lucky a second time in the eighth minute when Ahmed Fathi was pulled up for landing his shoe on the calf of Al Sadd’s Hashim Ali while going for a high ball inside the danger area. After a VAR check, the referee pointed to the spot and Spaniard Mujica struck firmly to open the floodgates for his team (1-0).

Afif showed his mercurial class soon as, after a throw-in by Jassem Jaber inside their own half, Helal Mohammed tried to send the ball across to Abdou Diallo when Afif intercepted in front of the goal and the alert Al Sadd star dashed in to rattle the net (2-0).

One of the best goals of the match followed next as Afif provided a fantastic through ball to Mujica, who grabbed the chance just outside the box and went on to beat a diving goalkeeper to his right (3-0).

One of the few Al Arabi attempts came in the 42nd minute when Ahmed Alaaeldin was within the striking range, but he produced a feeble shot which was easily cut off.

In opening half’s added time, Al Sadd came close to adding their fourth goal, but this time Afif with only the goalkeeper to beat delayed a bit and an Al Arabi defender retrieved the ball from him in good time.

Just before the half-time whistle, a Giovani shot went on to hit the cross bar.

Al Sadd, however, made it 4-0 at the hour mark as Giovani out-sprinted a rival defender to break in from the right and send the ball diagonally into the far left corner.

Al Arabi lifted their defence comparatively and held back further Al Sadd strikes, but were mostly had to battle to gain possession as Al Sadd completely held charge. A few of their late strikes went over the goal, while a Hassan Al Haydous kick hit the outside of the left post.

Al Sadd had more to celebrate towards the end as Afif provided Giovani with another fine assist to storm in from the left while ensuring that he was not off-side to calmly score his hat-trick goal and the team’s fifth of the match.

The victory took Al Sadd’s points tally to six points from three games, while Al Arabi have slipped to 11th with two points.