Qatar eye repeat show in France

Eyeing another impressive run in the prestigious competition, Qatar will take on Egypt in their opening match of the World Handball Championship hoping to start their campaign on a winning note in Paris today.      
Two years ago when the Gulf state hosted the event, Qatar displayed historic performance in front of home fans and became the first non-European side to reach the final of the global event.         
The competition which started on Wednesday is featuring as many as 24 teams with Al Anabi being placed in group D along with European giants Denmark and Sweden besides tough Argentinean side. Bahrain and Egypt are other teams in the group.
After their match against Egypt, Qatar will take on Bahrain on January 15 before taking on Argentina on January 17. The surprise 2015 runner-up side will meet Sweden and Denmark on January 18 and 20 respectively in their final group games.      
Qatar’s stunning performance in the 2015 edition was ended by giants France with a 25-22 win in the final at Lusail Multipurpose Hall. Despite the loss in the final, Al Anabi won applause from the entire world handball fraternity.      
“The world championship that we played at home two years ago was certainly the best moment of my handball career,” said star Qatari player Rafael Capote ahead of team’s opening game.
 “I’d really like to obtain such results again. We know that France will be the obvious favourite in this world championship since, with your fans backing you up, you can do almost surreal things. But we’ve got hope to get a good result,” he added.
The 29-year-old stressed that the team will have to give a good display in preliminary round of the event.  
 “The main thing for us will be to play well in the group games, where we’ll meet with Denmark, Sweden and Argentina, three teams that will want to finish at the best spot as they can so make life easier for the rest of the competition. And the, from the Last 16, it will be another competition, anything can happen when you play only one game,” he said.
Meanwhile, hosts and defending champions France, started their title-defence with a crushing 31-16 win over Olympic quarter-finalists Brazil on Wednesday in Paris.
Valentin Porte who scored six goals was the top scorer for the hosts while Jose Toledo netted five goals for Brazil. Adrien Dipanda and Olivier Nyokas added three goals each for France in the second half.
France are targeting their sixth world crown. They were the winners in 1995, 2001, 2009, 2011 and 2015 editions.