SOURCE: QATAR TRIBUNE

Cairo

Qatar beat Bahrain in ‘Gulf Derby’ of the IHF Men’s World Handball Championship in their Main Round meeting 28-23 on Saturday to stay in contention for a quarter-final berth.

After claiming their first win in the main round, Qatar are now on four points and still have a mathematical chance to advance to the last eight.

Both Qatar and Bahrain had a slow start in the match, each of them netting just once in the first eight minutes. Qatar’s Yassine Sami opened the score before Mohammed Ahmed drew level from the 7m line.

After that, the opponents started to demonstrate their powerful attack – yet, they were still tied at 4:4 in the 12th minute. Then Qatar took the initiative, though, and goals by Rafael Capote propelled them to an 8:5 lead.

After a time-out taken by Halldor Sigfusson, Bahrain started to play more disciplined and hit back, as Mahdi Saad drew level at 12:12.

In the 27th minute, Mohammed Ahmed scored his fourth goal in the game to give Bahrain their first lead (13:12) and his fifth goal helped them to stay in front at half-time.

Capote, who only recently joined Qatar’s squad and played his first match at the event, was hard to stop early in the second half, and he helped the team to turn the tide. He was named as the Man of the Match.

Following a 7:2 run, Valero Rivera’s men were up by four goals by minute 42 (20:16).

“Even though Capote was sick and did not train for three weeks, he helped us a lot.

“I’m proud of my team who did an excellent job in the second half,” Rivera said after the match.

While Capote finished the game with nine and Frankis Marzo added eight more, Qatar’s experienced goalkeeper Danijel Saric recorded many saves, limiting their rivals to just four goals between the 31st and 54th minute.

By then, Qatar led 25:18 and although Bahrain woke up in the last few minutes of the match, it was too late for them as Rivera’s team went on to claim two points in this ‘Gulf Derby’.

Qatar’s next match is against Argentina on Monday.