Action from yesterday's Youth World Championship clash between Qatar and Switzerland in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg. Qatar won 29-19.
IHF/Yekaterinburg, Russia
Qatar recorded their first win with a decisive goal difference against Switzerland (29-19) in the second round of Group C matches at the 2015 IHF Men’s Youth World Championship yesterday.
The second match of the day went down to the wire, with Russia scoring the game-winning goal in the last minute to defeat Croatia after a close 60 minutes.
Denmark finished the day for the group with their second win of the tournament, this time against Algeria, adding another two points to their tally and moving to the top of the table alongside Russia.
The Qatar-Switzerland match was fast-paced. A fast break from Moustafa Heiba put Qatar on the board first, while Switzerland took a little while to settle down in the game. A penalty save from goalkeeper Noah Huber as the clock ticked into the fifth minute kick-started the European side, and their first goal, courtesy of Simon Schild, came in the next attack.
From there on, Switzerland endured a scoring drought as Qatar hustled to create a four-goal lead after 10 minutes of play (5-1) at which point coach Michael Suter was forced to call a time-out. The key player for Switzerland, left-back Albin Alili, who was injured in their first match against Croatia, was substituted on.
Qatar goalkeeper Ahmed Abdelrhem was really causing Switzerland a lot of headache, but Alili (nine goals) finally added another goal to their tally in the 14th minute (8-2).
The situation only got worse for Switzerland from there—when Qatar hit an advantage of 10 goals in the 19th minute it seemed the
European team may have reached the point of no return.
Switzerland started the second half much stronger, opening with a 4-5 run that took the score to 18-10 at the 40-minute mark, but it was impossible for them to recover from the nine-goal deficit at half-time.
Qatar finished with a 10-goal lead, taking their first two points of the championship.
“I am very happy of course for the win, but most important is the level of my players coming back. If we lost today we would be in a little crisis now, but the position (is better) to play the next matches.
“I think it’s normal when we work with young players when they are up and down... it’s absolutely normal,” said Qatar head coach Julian Gomez after the game.
