By Yash Mudgal/Doha
 
Qatar’s El Jaish and Lekhwiya, and Kuwait’s Al Kuwait Club reached the semi-finals of 17th Asian Handball Clubs’ League Championship yesterday.
El Jaish defeated bottom-placed Omani club Ahli Sadab 37-19 in Group B to secure a semi-final berth, while Lekhwiya defeated Al Qurain 27-21 to enter the last four stage. The last semi-final place will be decided today.
In the last game of the day, which drew an attendance of approximately 2,500 spectators in the Ali bin Hamad Al-Attiyah Arena in Al Sadd, defending champions Jaish were always in control of the game and were never threatened by the Omani team, which is still in search for their first points in the tournament.
Montenegrin coach Zoran Kastratovic had the chance to test all his players and check their readiness and form ahead of the semi-finals, even giving a chance to his 18-year-old compatriot line player Jovo Damjanovic, who responded extremely well.
“At this tournament there are no easy games. We always make sure to give 100 percent, because this is how champions play. And it is also the way we are going to play until we reach the final,” Jaish’s Mohamed Shebib said. “It does not matter which team we will meet in the semi-final, we hope to go all the way and win the trophy and defending the title,” he said.
Group A leaders Lekhwiya secured their third victory in as many matches beating Kuwait’s Al Qurain Sporting Club. Led by unstoppable shooter Bagaric (seven goals), the Kuwaitis only managed to level the game for ten minutes in the middle of first-half, when they switched to their infamous man-marking defence. For ten minutes no goal was scored at all.
But after that Lekhwiya regained full control of the game and brought home the 27-21 victory safely. With these two points the Doha team secured first place in the group, and will meet the second-placed team from Group B in the first semi-final on Saturday.
“Our six-goal victory is a great result. Today the team spirit was fantastic. In defence we fought bravely for the whole 60 minutes. We made a couple of mistakes, especially against their tricky defence systems, but did all right in the end. It was our target from the beginning to finish first in the group. Today before the match we knew, that we could win the group with a victory, which we did, perfect,” Lekhwiya’s Frantisek Sulc said.
Talking about the semi-final match he said: “Now it is like a whole new tournament starting for us. We only have two more games, and everything is possible - a great feeling.”
The day’s first game between the third Qatar club Gharafa and Iran’s Samenalhojaj needed a long warm-up phase, with mistakes on both sides, to transform into one of the most exciting ties of the tournament. After a 10-9 scoreline at half-time, the Qatar club put themselves in a comfortable seven-goal lead within only seven minutes.
The game seemed decided when Samenalhojaj – powered by a red card against their opponents – all of a sudden geared up. Iranian right winger Masaeli rose to the occasion scoring eight goals, out of his total ten, in Samenalhojaj’s hunt for the equaliser. Four minutes before the end, the equaliser was there, and in the hectic finishing minutes the Iranians secured their 26-23 victory over the Qatari side.
Al Kuwait Club’s aggressive defence paid off at their third game in the tournament against Manyazium Ferdows Club. The Kuwaitis achieved their third straight win with a 35-25 scoreline over the Iranians to get through to the semi-finals. Their final ranking will be decided today, in group’s B final game against Jaish.
The 17th Asian Clubs’ League top scorer, powerful Kuwaiti international left back Mohamed Algharaballi once again led Al Kuwait’s scoring, netting nine goals in 15 attempts.




 

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