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European Champions SG Flensburg-Handweitt staved off a determined effort from wild card entrants Al Ahli 29-20 to book their place in the semifinals of the 2014 IHF Super Globe handball championship. |
At the Qatar Handball Association complex yesterday, Qatari club Al Ahli put in a spirited show against one of the tournament favourites in the first half, before the German team found their groove in the next 30 minutes to win their second match in the Group A preliminary round.
Flensburg join El Jaish in the last four stage, with both the teams facing each other today to determine the Group A toppers.
In the day's first match, billed as 'David vs Goliath' contest, the students from Sydney University had given a real scare to defending champions FC Barcelona before the Spanish team got their acts together in the second half to prevail.
Al Ahli seemed to have picked their inspiration from that match. Al Ahli are a professional unit and are winners of the prestigious Qatar Handball Cup, unlike Sydney University players who train in their campus only for two to three days a week.
So it wasn't exactly a match of unevens against Flensburg, but they were clearly the underdogs going into the match.
The Qatar side though were on par with the German champions in the first half. After trailing by 2-5 in the first 10 minutes, the hosts staged a comeback through counter-attacks and some brilliant goalkeeping by their Serbian goalkeeper Ivan Gajic.
The 35-year-old brought his quick reflexes into play to deny Flensburg at least half a dozen goals. That sort of spurred Al Ahli as they went on to level the scores. However, Flensburg once again extended the lead to 13-10 after a well-disguised goal from Denmark pivot Anders Zachariassen. But Al Ahli were not giving up and scored three points in succession to go into the break level on 13 goals each.
It was a different story in the second half though. Just like what Barcelona did in the earlier match, Flensburg too raised their game after the break and Al Ahli imploded in the same way, much like Sydney University.
Al Ahli opened the second half with a goal to take the lead (14-13), but after that they were chasing the Flensburg players as the European champions found the target at repeated intervals.
From 15-all, Flensburg jumped into a huge lead with five successive goals as right-wing Lukas Blohme and pivot Tobias Karlsson scored. Surprisingly, Al-Ahli failed to take advantage of three two-minute suspensions to Flensburg players.
In fact, the Flensburg counters opened up Al Ahli defence and goalkeeper Gajic, who was impressive in the first half, was left with too much to do in the second session.
In the end it was just a brief resistance that Al Ahli offered as Flensburg found their bearing ahead of the big matches.
The absence of coach Hafedu Zowqbi, who has been hospitalised due to a back problem, seem to have hampered Al Ahli's preparations too.
Flensburg coach Ljubomir Vranjes heaped praise on goalkeeper Gajic for making it tough for them in the first period.
"We had difficulties against Gajic. He was outstanding today. Respect!" he said.
Al Ahli goalkeeping coach Mihailo Radosavjevic blamed it on lack of preparation due to head coach Zowqbi's absence.
"It was the same like yesterday's match (against El Jaish). We haven't had an ideal preparation. We did well in the first half but gave it away easily in the second," Radosavjevic reasoned.
For Gajic, who put in a heroic effort at the post, it was Flensburg's power which undid his first-half good work. "They are the European champions and they showed it. They came back very well," the Serb veteran said.