Supercharged Al Rayyan blanked Saudi Arabia’s Al Shabab 3-0 to lift the 2025-26 Gulf Club Champions League trophy at the Ahmad bin Ali Stadium in Doha on Thursday.
The highly entertaining final was tight-fisted for an hour before The Lions roared to humble their rivals, who were laid low after their Belgian player Yannick Carrasco received a second yellow for foul play in the 59th minute.
David Garcia (61st), Aleksandar Mitrovic (79th), and Roger Guedes (81st) scored for Al Rayyan.
The two sides made several raids into their opponents’ halves early on. The early game was also marked by many rough challenges from Al Shabab. Just before half-time, Al Shabab’s Hammam Al Hammami came across in a one-on-one situation against Al Rayyan goalkeeper Mahmud Abunada but failed to beat him.
Al Rayyan fired the first salvo just past the hour mark as Garcia leapt high to connect a long Thiago Silva assist from the right and made a perfect header.
The lead was doubled as tall Serbian Mitrovic headed in a fine Rodrigo Moreno corner kick to leave Al Shabab shell-shocked.
The Al Rayyan dominance was on full display as they hit back again within two minutes. Ahmed Al Minhali lobbed in from left inside the box, and Mitrovic moved the ball for Guedes to flick it into the net for a thrilling third goal.
It is Al Rayyan’s second trophy following the 2025-26 QSL Cup triumph, and second since their coach Vicente Moreno took charge a month ago.
Al Rayyan received a cash prize of $3m, besides the prestigious trophy, while the runners-up received $1m. All individual award winners got $50,000 each.
Al Rayyan’s Mahmoud Abunada was named the Best Goalkeeper, while Roger Guedes won the Best Player award.
The 2025–26 AGCFF Gulf Club Champions League featured eight top clubs from the region — Al Rayyan (Qatar), Al Ain (UAE), Sitra (Bahrain), Al Qadsia (Kuwait), Al Shabab (Saudi Arabia), Zakho (Iraq), Al Nahda (Oman) and Tadamon Hadramaut (Yemen).
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