Qatar-UAE Super Cup: Shabab Al Ahli beat Al Rayyan to clinch Challenge Shield title

Doha, Qatar: Shabab Al Ahli secured their second consecutive Qatar UAE Super Cup title, defeating hosts Al Rayyan 3 1 to lift the Challenge Shield at...

Doha, Qatar: Shabab Al Ahli secured their second consecutive Qatar-UAE Super Cup title, defeating hosts Al Rayyan 3-1 to lift the Challenge Shield at the Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium yesterday.

Shabab Al Ahli had defeated Qatar’s Al Duhail 2-1 to win the Super Shield in Dubai in the inaugural bilateral tournament last year.

Shabab Al Ahli’s goals came off the boots of Yuri César (28th minute), Sardar Azmoun (52nd minute) and Guilherme Bala (90th + 7 minutes) while Al Rayyan were gifted an own goal by Shabab Al Ahli’s Renan in the 42nd minute of the highly entertaining encounter.

Knowing what was at stake, the two teams came vigorously for each other’s jugular right from the start and the interesting match was further livened in the ninth minute when Al Rayyan’s goalkeeper, Paulo Victor, made a fantastic save from what was a goalbound shot from Shabab Al Ahli’s Bogdan Planić that received tremendous applause from the stands.

The visitors kept upping their pressure against The Lions, but Al Rayyan’s goalkeeper, who was in fantastic shape, stood between them and what could have been a flurry of goals until the 28th minute when the Brazil-born Emirati midfielder Yuri Cesar found the back of the net for them following an assist by Guilherme Bala, who literally hijacked the ball from Al Rayyan’s Murad Naji near the centre line before starting the moves that ended with the goal.