Baghdad Bounedjah scored a brace as Al-Sadd crushed Al Gharafa 5-0 in their Amir Cup 2021 quarterfinal clash at the Abdullah bin Khalifa Stadium.

Nam Tae-hee put Al Sadd in the lead with the first goal in the 25th minute, before Bounedjah added the second a minute later. Akram Afif then made it 3-0 at the stroke of halftime.

Bounedjah scored his second goal and Al Sadd’s fourth in the 72nd minute, and then substitute Yousuf Abdurisag netted the fifth in the 80th minute to conclude the scoring.

With this victory, Al Sadd qualified for the semi-finals and will meet arch rivals Al Arabi next after the “Dream Team’ brushed aside Al Sailiya 4-1.

Al-Sadd started the match strongly and Akram almost got the opening goal in the 7th minute, but his shot went just wide of the left post. The Wolves continued to dominate the game and finally, they were able to break the deadlock in the 25th minute, when Nam Tae-hee received a pass from Bounedjah and finished past Yousuf Hassan with aplomb.

A minute later, Al-Sadd doubled their lead through Bounedjah, who got the final touch to convert a cross by Santi Cazorla from the left.

The third goal arrived just before the halftime whistle, when Hashim Ali sent in a ball from the right; it fell to the feet of Akram who made no mistake with his calm finish.

In the second half, Al Sadd continued from where they had left off and a fourth goal materialised in the 72nd minute. After an exchange of passes between Akram and substitute Yousuf Abdurisag, the ball fell to Nam Tae-hee whose cross was duly converted by Bounedjah.

Yousuf then got on the scoresheet in the 80th minute, latching on to a long ball from Pedro before finding the net with a cool finish to complete the scoring and give Al-Sadd a huge 5-0 win.

Mohanad Ali had put Al Sailiya in the 12th minute only for Mehrdad Mohmmadi to equalize for Al Arabi in in the 24th.

Both teams struggled to score after that but the floodgates opened in the second half when Youssef Msakni struck off an Aaron Gunnarson pass to put Al Arabi ahead for the first time in the 62nd minute.

Al Arabi then began a sustained spell of domination, scoring two more goals in the next 11 minutes to complete the rout.

Mohamed Salah made it 3-1 in the 66th minute before Msakni scored his second goal in the 73rd minute to complete the rout.