Kenya international Michael Olunga was among the goals as Al Duhail SC cruised to a 6-0 victory against Al Ahli in a Qatar Stars League fixture at Hamad bin Khalifa Stadium on Wednesday.
It was Duhail, who started the game with urgency and they took a deserved lead with only four minutes played when Al Ahli defender Talal Abdulla Bahzad scored into his own net under pressure from Olunga.
The lanky Olunga then made it 2-0 for Duhail in the seventh minute; Nam Tae-hee grabbed the third in the 28th minute before Almoez Ali notched the fourth in the 44th minute for a 4-0 lead at the half-time break.
On resumption, Abdullah Al-Ahrak stretched Duhail’s lead in the 71st minute before Edmilson Junior put the icing on the cake with the sixth goal in the 79th minute.
The goal against Al Ahli was the 13th of the season for the 27-year-old Olunga from nine appearances so far in this campaign.
It was a good win for Duhail, who had lost 2-1 against Umm Salal in their last assignment on December 25, and the outcome elated coach Luis Castro.
“In the beginning, I want to congratulate the team’s players who succeeded in presenting a very good match and achieved a special result,” Castro told the club’s official website.
“The early goals that came in the first minutes of the match made the confrontation easier and we achieved the victory that we wanted.
“In this match, the ball control rate for us was 73% which shows that Duhail was the strongest and more control, as we created 27 chances and we scored six goals and Al Ahli was not able to score despite the many attempts they did, but our team was ready for this match and now we will work to improve on winning more points in the upcoming matches.”
The win enabled Duhail to cut Al Sadd’s lead at the top of the log to three points as they reached 25 from 11 matches.
Olunga and Duhail will next face Al Khor in their next league assignment at Grand Hamad Stadium on January 4.
