A Qatari player (right) bursts into tears after his team’s loss against Russia in their final Group C match at the Men’s Youth World Handball Championship in Yekaterinburg, Russia, yesterday. RIGHT: Qatari coach Julian Gomez gestures during the match.
Yekaterinburg, Russia: Hosts Russia claimed a 33-28 victory over Qatar in their final Group C match, ending chances of the Gulf handball giants to reach the Eighth-Finals (last 16) of the 2015 IHF Men’s Youth World Championship in Yekaterinburg, yesterday.
Though the score line was equal after ten minutes (5:5), Qatar appeared to have the upper hand with well-structured attack led by Moustafa Heiba and Ahmed Abdelrhem once again putting on an exceptional performance in goal, saving several difficult shots that should have been easy goals for Russia and only just missing most of the goals that made their way past him.
Buoyed by the home crowd, Russia took the upper hand with a fast break goal from right wing Vladislav Razmaev taking them two in front midway through the half (8:6). They kept the lead as the half continued, gaining a four-goal advantage by the 25th minute (14:10) as Qatar looked to be running out of ideas.
Abdelrhem was substituted out for Bilal Lepenica as the defence in front of him were unable to find an answer for the Russia attack.
Russia kept their lead at the break, and held it through the second half.
As the clock neared the 50th minute, the hosts retained a two-goal advantage. When Russia keeper Iyrii Sergeev saved a Qatar penalty in the 48th, they had edged ahead by three (25:22).
Razmaev (five goals total) scored a fast break in the 52nd and Russia pulled ahead to a four-goal advantage as both teams had just five players on the field, with Victor Furtsev and Heiba both out on two-minute suspensions.
Divs arena erupted when Russia hit a five-goal lead inside the last minute (33:28) – and it was not only the crowd who were celebrating. Croatia, watching the games from the stands, booked their Eighth-Finals spot with Russia’s victory.
The top scorer of the game was Sergei Bolotin with eight goals, while Omar Abdelfattah tallied seven for Qatar.
Qatar coach Julian Gomez said penalties were what let his team down:
“I think we played face to face with the best teams from Europe but our problem is the seven metres, even with different players. I feel we are out of this competition because we made many, many mistakes on seven metres. Also, without our main players in defence we had to make a different system.
“But I think my team fought. Today we hoped to win at least one point and continue. Now the change room is absolutely down – players are probably crying, which is normal, absolutely normal. Now my job is to recover the team before we play Japan. Our players have to learn about this. It’s the sport.”
Qatar will now face Japan tomorrow in the Placement rounds. In other match Denmark outclassed Switzerland 34-23.
It was all about Denmark from the first whistle to the last. A strong ground shot from right back Mathias Bitsch took the score to 3-1 in favour of the Scandinavian side just after the fifth minute, with Lasse Moller adding his second and Nicolaj Norager his first – also both ground shots – to put Denmark in front by three in the eighth (5-2).
At midway through the half Denmark led by four (8-4) with Lenny Rubin responsible for keeping his side in touch, having scored three of Switzerland’s goals and setting up right wing Cedrie Tynowski in the 17th to put the score at 9-5.
Albin Alili, was kept quiet by the Denmark defence, scoring his first in the 18th (9:6).
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