Bosnia and Herzegovina: Continental champions Qatar defeated Asian bronze medallists Kuwait 38-22 to finish 19th in the International Handball Federation’s Junior World Championship in Bosnia and Herzegovina yesterday.
The victors led 19-11 at half-time. Qatar and Kuwait had suffered narrow losses in the earlier round of the President’s Cup, featuring teams that failed to progress to the last-16 of the main tournament.
Qatar lost to Russia 27-28 while Kuwait went down to South Korea 26-28.
Things finally fell into place for Qatar and they toyed with Kuwait from the start.
By the 13th minute, Qatar were ahead 14-9 thanks to the efficient trio of Hadi Hamdoon, Selvedin Omahic and Anis Zouaoui.
Abdullah Algharaballi did most of the hard work for Kuwait and was also their top-scorer with 11 goals.
The two teams then played a tight defensive game and there was an eight minute-long goal drought.
Qatar’s Maamoun Saad finally broke the dry spell, scoring in the 21st (15-9).
Qatar goalkeeper Grco Mirnes was in fine nick and he made a string of good saves.
At the other end, Qatar kept scoring regularly and led 19-11 at lemon break.
They continued the good run early in the second half.
The players went on goal scoring spree, scoring seven times continuously to make it 26-13.
The game was stopped for close to five minutes after Qatar’s Kamalaldin Mallash clashed with Kuwait’s Abdulrahman Albaloul and Soud Alduwaihi.
The three players were given two-minute suspensions upon resumption.
Bilel Fatnassi, who was brought on in the 45th, scored thrice in a row. He ensured that Qatar’s scoreboard kept ticking. In between, Kuwait’s Mishaal Alharbi and Saqer Alfahad, and Qatar’s Omahic, Hadi and Kamalaldin received yellow cards.
Kuwait gave up all hopes by the final 10 minutes and Qatar ran riot. The victors missed two key players — Eldar Memisevic and Mousa Al Mousa — who were both out due to injury.
Had they played, the winning margin would have been even greater.
Anis was Qatar’s top-scorer with 10 goals.
Qatar coach Dragan Zovko was happy with the team.
Zovko said: “I’m happy we finished the tournament with a win. The players always feel special when they win a derby game against Kuwait. My wards played to a plan and they never let their opponents take the upper hand. We’ll now analyse our performance and make necessary changes where necessary.”
THE PENINSULA
