BY ARMSTRONG VAS
Doha: Hosts Qatar stunned Slovenia 31-29 – the 2013 semi-finalists – to maintain their unbeaten record and qualify for the knockout stage of the 24th Men’s Handball World Championship.
Yesterday’s win at the Lusail Multipurpose Hall, the third successive one in the six-team group secured a place for Qatar in the pre-quarter-final stage of the championship, after a gap of 12 years.
The last time they made it was in Portugal in 2003 where they picked up the 16th spot, in 2005 they came a distance 21st and in 2007 and in 2013 picked up the 23rd and 20th places.
“Of course, I am very, very happy with this victory that secures our spot at the pre-quarter-finals,” Qatar coach Valero Rivera said.
“I think our attacking play was good today, but we won this game with our hearts and a bit with our tactics,” he added.
“We knew it would be very complicated against a team of Slovenia’s class, but this is the deserved result of work which has been done for a very long time.”
Qatar’s right back Abdullah Al Karbi described the win as a ‘historic ‘one.
“This is a historic victory for us. It was a difficult match against a well organised Slovenian team, which contains some of the best players in the world.”
Slovenia coach Boris Denic said a number of blunders cost them the match.
“We made too many technical mistakes and missed too many free scoring opportunities,” he said.
In a fortune-fluctuating match, the Asian Games champions set the tone at the start but Slovenia bounced back to go ahead at 8-7, 12 minutes into the match and extended it to 10-7. Qatar came back strongly with centre back Kamalaldin Mallash, the toast of the hosts.
Mallash, who sat out of the last match against Chile after the injury he had sustained in the opening match against Brazil, celebrated his comeback.
He scored seven out of his team’s first 14 goals, and together with Goran Stojanovic in goal he played a great part in Qatar going into the half time break with a three-goal lead at 18-15.
In the second half, Slovenia fought back and with five minutes left equalised at 28-28.
Thereafter, the Slovenians did not get any further goals while Qatar scored three to widen the lead at 31-28. Slovenia scored one more but it was too late with the hosts registering a 31-29 win. For Qatar, Rafeal Capote top scored with 12 goals, while Jure Dolenec scored eight for Slovenia.
The hosts, who won against Brazil 28-23 on Thursday and on Saturday defeated Chile 27-20, will take on world champions Spain tomorrow and Belarus in the concluding group match on January 23.
Qatar become the second team, after Spain, to qualify from Group A and join Croatia and Macedonia, who made it from Group B, after winning their respective matches.
Macedonia secured a spot in pre-quarter-finals after a 25-22 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina at Ali Bin Hamad Al Atiyya in Al Sadd.
At Duhail Sports Hall, Croatia stormed to an easy 41-22 win over Iran to register their third successive win in Group B and book a place in the knockout stage.
In another match of group A at the same venue, Brazil secured their first victory of the tournament by defeating Belarus 34-29.
THE PENINSULA
