The Peninsula
Qatar yesterday defeated Asian Champions Iran 2-1 (17-22, 20-19, 8-9) in a thrilling Group 2 match to advance to the quarter-finals of the IHF World Handball Championship in Heraklion, Greece.
In a repeat of this year’s Asian Championship final, both Qatar and Iran were looking to become the only team to make it to the last eight in the World Stage at the Karteros Beach Sports Center.
Qatar won the first set with a comfortable margin, but the Antonio Guerra Peixe-coached Iran men bounced back in the following set to force the match into a shoot-out.
Then the evergreen 43-year-old Qatar goalkeeper, Mohsen Mohammed Alyafeai, did his part during the as Khaled Aly-coached Qatar held their nerve to win and take Al Annabi to last eight of the World Championship for the fourth time in the history.
For Qatar, Nowraddine Denguir Amir (19) and Marwan Kakhi Hani (12) were the pick of the scorers.
At the end of the Main Round, Qatar (6 points) were second behind the reigning champions Brazil (10 points) in Group II, followed by Denmark (6), Norway (4), Iran (2) and Portugal (2) as the top four advanced to today’s quarter-finals.