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Handball: Qatar beat Argentina in friendly

Handball: Qatar beat Argentina in friendly

Alkass Digital

Asian champions Qatar yesterday overpowered South American champions Argentina to clinch their second win in the international friendly tournament in Doha.


The hosts, who are gearing up for the IHF World Championship that will take place from January 13 to 31 in Egypt, yesterday won with a 24-22 margin against the South American giants. Qatar led 14-8 at the break


It looked like Argentina were struggling at the early stage of the match yesterday, with Qatar scoring at regular intervals. After starting the scoreboard ticking, Qatar were leading 4-1 at one stage before the visitors struck back to make it 4-5 in their favour. Qatar then revved up the pace of scoring with six goals in a row before Argentina added one as the scoreline read 11-4 in favour of the hosts.


Thereafter, Argentina made tried to make inroads into the game with four more goals while Qatar added three into their account before the half time break.


Upon return, Argentina took a more aggressive approach and looked determined to fight back. At one stage, Qatar led 17-11 before the visitors added six goals in succession to level the scores for the first time in the match.


However, Qatar looked more defensive after that and kept on blocking Argentina’s attempts. With few minutes remaining for the final whistle, Argentina once again threatened to take the game away from Qatar, with three goals being scored to make it 22-23 in their favour. However, Al Annabi didn’t disappoint their coach Valero Rivera Lopez as they sealed a 24-22 win at Al Duhail Indoor Hall.


Yesterday's win was Qatar's second in the friendly tournament after a 33-30 win over 10-time African champions Tunisia in the opening match on Friday.


The two wins will surely boost the morale of the former World Championship silver medallists Qatar who are looking to make their presence felt in Egypt next month.

In yesterday's opening match, European champions Spain and African heavyweights Tunisia played 30-30 tie.


Today, Argentina will take on Spain before squaring off with Tunisia on the final day, with Qatar wrapping up the event in a match against Spain.

Qatar, in preparations for the IHF World, underwent several training camps in the last few months besides featuring in a number of friendly matches including games against top clubs of Qatar. 


At next month’s IHF event, Al Annabi, drawn in Group C, open their campaign against Angola in what will be a rematch of one of the most memorable matches from 2019 World Championships. Euro 2020 runners-up Croatia and Japan are the other teams in their group.