By Sports Reporter/Doha
Al Gharafa secured fifth place at the 17TH Asian Handball Clubs’ League Championship, the highest they could finish after being knocked out of the semi-finals, courtesy a hard-fought 36-33 win over Iran’s Manyazium Ferdows Club in the 5-6 placement match at the Ali Bin Hamad Al-Attiya Sports Hall yesterday.
It took the Qatar club 30 minutes to edge past the Iranians, who once again showed their trademark fighting spirit and led 19-18 at the break. Nevertheless, a 4-0 run by Gharafa in the first five minutes of the second half, put the Qataris in the driver’s seat.
After six matches in eight days, players from both the teams looked very exhausted in the dying minutes of the game, and so it came down to experience for the winner to be decided, a factor which didn’t favour the Iranians. Gharafa’s line player Hany Elfakharany said: “Fifth place is a descent result for us in our first ever appearance at the Asian Clubs’ League. We could have finished higher, but with such a short roster it was impossible to meet the needs of such a strong, lengthy and demanding tournament. I want to thank our goalkeeper Hamdi Missaoui, who doesn’t belong to Gharafa but joined us just at the tournament, for his efforts.”
Talking about the upcoming World Championship in Doha he said: “Unfortunately I am no longer a member of the Egyptian national team, as the federation elected to put faith in the new generation. I respect their decision and of course I will be there for them in case they need me. I’ve been in five World Championships before and I am sure that the 24th edition of the tournament in Qatar will be the best-ever.”
Manyazium right wing Omid Sekenari, who scored eight goals in the match, said: “We played well, I would say, in the circumstances as we have 3-4 injured players. Most of us are very exhausted having played a lot of games in these days, especially the one against our rivals Samenalhojaj yesterday. Injury-free and fit, I guess we could beat Garafa on a lucky day. Gharafa have a very experienced team while our young players made some mistakes today. Still we are happy with 6th place,” he said.
Earlier in the day, Iranian club Samenalhojaj started the 7-8 placement match with new faces in the starting six after two players – Sajad Esteki and Hossein Rahmati – were suspended with red cards in their previous Main Round game and two import players Marcin Lijewski and Dan Beutler missing due to injury.
But their Saudi Arabian opponents Al Khalij Club could not take advantage of that at all as their team had been fighting with exhausted players and small injuries for some days now. In the first-half, the game was levelled with slight advantages for Samenalhojaj, who managed to gain a four-goal lead going into the break. In the second-half, exhaustion restricted Khalij’s game drastically and it became an easy fight for the Iranians, who in the end won 36-27 to finish the tournament in seventh position.
Samenalhojaj left back Allahkaram Esteki said: “Samenalhojaj consists of ten Iranian internationals, but after the inexplicable dismissal of our coach Rafa Guijosa from the national team, our relationship with the federation has been tense. Eventually our preparation for this tournament was affected. For the past six months, we didn’t train regularly and properly, which somehow explains the numerous technical and tactical mistakes we did.
“These problems with the federation are nearly over now. I believe we are a talented squad and we will prove it in January in Qatar. We will be ready to cause many surprises at the World Championship,” he said.
Khalij’s Mohamed Alzaer said: “We played quite badly today as everybody in our squad is incredibly tired. Playing against the best three opponents in our first three matches emptied our batteries. We had four injured players before this encounter. For the Iranians this must have felt like a friendly game. The rest comes in good time, although it is only three days for me before I start the preparation for the World Championship with the Saudi Arabian national team.”
The two Kuwaiti teams, who are clearly differ in their gameplay, will meet in the bronze medal match today. Al Kuwait Club are a team with great attacking skills, strong individual players from all positions and patience to find the well-positioned teammate, Qurain Sporting Club have made themselves a name with their infamous and unpredictable defensive systems.
The final of the tournament will be played between two strong Qatari teams when Lekhwiya Sports Club will meet El Jaish Sports Club today.
Al Gharafa’s Abdelhak Ahmed (right) tries to go past Manyazium Ferdows Club goalkeeper Shafiei Alavijeh Farhad during the 5-6 placement match at the 1
