Doha: Al Duhail enjoyed a near-perfect season to win the QNB Stars League (QSL) title but the Djamel Belmadi’s are hungry for more and are daring to challenge their continental counterparts as they set their sights on the Asian Champions League glory apart from sealing the Qatar treble.
On Saturday, the team was crowned the QSL champions after nine months of dominating football which saw them clinching 19 victories and securing three draws to end as winners without much resistance. They thrashed Al Sailiya 5-2 in their final game before receiving the ‘Falcon Shield’ to stay unbeaten throughout the contest.
They were superb in the attack scoring a whopping 86 goals from 22 matches averaging almost 4 goals per match with their ‘Y Force’ - Youssef El Arabi and Youssef Msakni – contributing more than half of their goals’ tally. Caen-born El Arabi ended as top scorer with 26 goals while Tunisia-based Msakni scored a total of 25 goals.
Not just in the QSL, Al Duhail also dominated their group in the Asian Champions League, sealing five out of five victories to enter the knock-out stage.
Their clinical performance so far in the season has made the players and official to believe that by maintaining their form, Al Duhail have a good chance of sealing the Asian title as well as Qatar Cup and Emir Cup trophies.
“This (QSL) title is just the first step, we’re not stopping here,” Al Duhail football chief Adnan Ali said after his players were crowned the champions.
“We started the season with a lot of ambitions and winning the QSL was just our first target. We are looking for more titles (Qatar Cup and Emir Cup) here and then winning the Asian Champions League is our main target this season,” he added.
“The way team is performing, they can achieve much more and I am pretty confident about that. I would like to congratulate all the team members including players and officials,” he added.
Ismail Mohammed, who scored two goals in 5-2 win over Al Sailiya said the QSL title-triumph will boost the team’s confidence.
“We have more challenges ahead and the QSL glory will help us in the rest of the season. This achievement came after a teamwork. All the team members including all the players and officials played their part and if we continue the same stuff we can achieve next targets too.” Another Al Duhail talent echoed his team-mate’s comments.
“We are in full confidence and looking forward to winning every match. Our form has been phenomenal and all we need is to continue playing good football and keep an eye on improvement at the same time.”
