Qatar’s national handball team shared the spoils with their Tunisian counterparts in a 25-25 draw in the third game of Group C of the handball competition in the Rio 2016 Olympics.
The result takes Qatar’s total to three points and revives the Maroon’s hopes of qualifying for the second round, having beaten Croatia 30-23 before suffering a 35-20 defeat at the hands of world champions France.
Tunisia, on the other hand, managed their first point of the tournament after losing their opening two games 25-23 and 31-23 to France and Denmark respectively.
The Maroon play Denmark next tomorrow before wrapping up the first round against Argentina on Monday.
The game was largely an equal contest that saw Tunisia take the lead late in the first half and hold it through to the last three minutes when Qatar suddenly grabbed the momentum to record a draw.
Tunisia left back Wael Jallouz broke through the middle of Qatar’s defence to put the score at 5-5. With the score progressing one for one, neither team could pull ahead by a significant difference until Qatar did so, with Rafael Capote scoring a long-range shot to open up the two-goal difference at 8-6 in the 18th. After Capote added his fifth to put the score at 9-7 neither team could find the goal until the 24th when Tunisia’s line player Issam Tej scored from six metres (8-9).
Tunisia equalised on the next attack thanks to left wing Oussama Boughanmi, who worked well in partnership with Jallouz to finish with eight goals in the match. Tunisia took the lead at 10-9 courtesy of Amine Bannour, at which point Qatar had not scored for almost 10 minutes, but they finally added another to level at 10-10 in with three minutes remaining in the half.
Qatar’s Zarko Markovic added the last goal of the period to put the distance at one at the break, but Tunisia pulled ahead when the match resumed to lead 16-14. Goalkeeper Marouen Marggaiz, who was on a 46 percent save rate after 50 minutes, stopped a Qatar shot in the 49th to keep Tunisia in front at 17-14, and when Bannour added another goal to put the difference at four (18-14) it looked like the Asian champions were in trouble. But Qatar came back with Capote decreasing the gap to two with his eighth goal (16-18, 44th), and it was he who struck again from 10 metres, taking his side within one with 15 minutes remaining.
The Asian team could not level the score however, and with six minutes on the clock Marggaiz made yet another save on a fast break that kept Tunisia in front 23-21, before Boughanmi scored his eighth with a tricky shot through Danijel Saric’s legs that took the score to 24-21 inside the last five minutes.
With three minutes remaining the difference stood at four (21-25) before Qatar completely turned the momentum around. The Asian side scored four consecutive goals from Abdulrazzaq Murad, Capote, Markovic and Kamal Aldin Mallash, while keeping Tunisia scoreless for the remainder of the game to finish with a draw.
Qatar in action today
SHOOTING: Men’s skeet (qualifications): Nasser al-Attiyah and Rashid Hamad
ATHLETICS: Men’s 800m (heats): Abubaker HaydarAbdalla and Musaeb Abdulrahman Balla
Men’s 400m (heats):
Abdalelah Haroun
Qatar’s Zarko Markovic (left) has his shot blocked during the men’s preliminaries Group A handball match against Tunisia in Rio de Janeiro yesterday. (AFP)
