Doha: Austria clinched a spot in the last-16 stage of the 24th Men’s Handball World Championship yesterday by defeating Iran 38-26 at the Ali Bin Hamad Al Attiyah Arena here.
Patrekur Johanesson and his team now have five points in their account after two wins. They now face Macedonia in their last preliminary-round match, with a chance to potentially top Group B.
Iran, meanwhile, will continue at the world championship in the President’s Cup
Iran felt the brunt of the Austrian team’s strongest weapon — their fast breaks — right from the start.
Within five minutes, Austrian left-wing Raul Santos had scored his fourth goal to give his side a 6-1 lead as Iranian coach Borut Macek called a time-out to stop the Austrian surge.
The Europeans, however, continued to play aggressively in defence with astonishing counter attacks by their two wingers, Santos and Weber.
That gave Austrian coach Patrekur Johanesson a possibility to rest some important players as his team raced to an eight-goal lead at 13-5 after only 18 minutes of play.
The second big plus of the European squad was Nikola Marinovic between the posts. The experienced goalkeeper ended the first-half with 12 saves — including three penalty shots.
The Iranians staged a small fightback just before the first-half break, scoring four goals in a row in the last two minutes to make the score a more respectable 18-13. They started the second half decently, Sajad Esteki scored twice to narrow the lead to three (18-15).
But in the end, the Austrians ran away with the game to win 38-26.
Winger Santos top-scored for Austria with eight goals while Iran’s best player was Esteki with seven goals.
Before the match, Austrian goalkeeper Marinovic, who was playing his 150th match for the national team, was honoured by Gerhard Hofbauer, the President of Austrian Handball Federation.
In another Group B match, the Balkan derby lived up to expectations as both Croatia and Macedonia demonstrated tremendous passion and skill to the roar of hundreds at the Duhail Sports Hall.
But Croatia won it 29-26 in the end to top Group B.
Both teams were encouraged by large sections of vociferous and brightly-dressed fans. The Macedonians, particularly, were represented by a large group of supporters who cheered and drummed to the incredible pace of the extremely intense game.
The Macedonians opened the scoring and it took a couple of minutes for the Croats to reciprocate. After that both teams started their ferocious exchange of goals with the Macedonians taking the lead with regular intervals through the efforts of Kiril Lazarov, Georgievski and Manaskov. The Croats responded with the scoring efforts of Cupic and Bicanic.
By the end of the first-half, both teams were still tied but the Croats managed to finish on top at with a single-goal advantage 15-14.
The Croats came back strong in the middle of the second half and went ahead 23-18. There was a clear impression that the Macedonians were tiring from the game’s incredibly fast pace.
The Croats threw their full weight at the Macedonians and pulled away to win by three goals.
Kiril Lazarov was the top-scorer for the Macedonians with seven goals and Cupic was the most active on the score sheet for Croatia with nine goals.
THE PENINSULA
Doha: Eight teams are in the race to grab the six remaining last-16 knockout stage spots in Group C and D of the 24th Men’s Handball World Championship heading into the last two rounds of the preliminary round.
Only the unbeaten teams of Sweden (six points) and France (five) in Group C have clinched their knock-out stage berth already.
While France are clear favourites in their encounter today against Algeria, Sweden have a tough task ahead of them as they clash with in-form Egypt.
Like the Africans, Iceland can make it to the next stage today if they beat the Czech Republic.
In Group D Germany, Denmark and Poland can qualify for the pre-quarter-finals if they win their respective matches. But Russia and Argentina are still in the race for those sought-after spots.
The Group C match at Ali Bin Hamad Al Attiyah Arena between Egypt and Sweden promises to produce some exciting handball.
“We have to keep concentrated for sixty minutes — that’s the key,” stated Tobias Karlsson, Sweden’s defensive rock.
After three wins, the Swedish are sitting comfortably but Egypt have pulled off two stunning performances against the French and the Czechs.
One point will be enough for the Africans, who have four points to their name. “We will give it our all and hope for the highest possible place. We have to take it one game at a time,” Egyptian coach Marwan Ragab insisted.
In the other match, Iceland take on Czech Republic at the same venue.
If the Czechs lose, they are out of contention for the pre-quarer-finals, so Filip Jicha and his compatriots have their backs against the wall after their latest defeat against Egypt on Tuesday.
On the other hand, Iceland have swung results in their favour after their opening defeat
against Sweden. Their latest draw against France was more than impressive.
“We can beat the Czechs but it will be anything but easy. We are confident that we can proceed,” commented goalkeeper Bjorgvin Gustavsson.
In the third match of Group C today, Algeria face an uphill task against France at Duhail Sports Hall.
The one-sided duel of this group on Thursday will be the clash of the Olympic and European champions France and the African champions Algeria, who still await their first point in Doha.
“After three consecutive losses, we must be realistic,” said line-player Aski Mokrani, who is currently playing for French champions Dunkurque.
On the other hand, French coach Claude Onesta is cautious despite his side collecting five points from their last three matches: “We have respect for any opponent,” stated Onesta before the game.
In today’s Group D clash between Germany and Argentina, a draw is enough to see the unbeaten Germans through to the pre-quarters.
After two close wins over Poland and Russia, the Germans managed to draw with Denmark. The Argentinians also snatched a draw against the Danes. The South Americans have three points in their account.
“We have two extremely tough matches against Germany and Russia ahead of us and we simply need more points to proceed to the next stage,” says Argentine coach Eduardo Gallardo.
On the other hand, Germany are the biggest surprises of this tournament, pulling off
unexpected results thus far. They will face Argentina and Saudi Arabia in their remaining matches.
But right-wing Patrick Groetzki still sees his team as “the underdogs” of the tournament. “We have won nothing yet, but we are doing well,” his team-mate Uwe Gensheimer added.
The match will be an
extra special for Argentine goalkeeper Mattias Schulz, who has German roots and played in Germany for some years.
THE PENINSULA
