Qatar fancy title chances after ousting Germany

Qatar are fancying their chances of making amends for their heartbreaking second-place finish in 2015 after sensationally upsetting European champions Germany in the last 16 of this year’s 25th IHF Men’s World Championship in France.
Displaying dazzling skills and supreme athleticism, Valero Rivera’s men upstaged the mighty Germans 22-20 in Paris on Sunday to render the tournament wide open after being written off as only worth a last-eight finish when the event began.
They have a relatively easy quarter-final outing against Slovenia today, and a victory will pit them against either Sweden or France in the last four phase from where it could be anybody’s game as far as the title is concerned.
Qatar’s win over Germany evoked memories of the 2015 tournament when it was held in Doha where Qatar stormed into the final before capitulating to France.
Coach Rivera had underplayed Qatar’s hopes this time round by insisting he was only targeting a quarter-final spot, but following Sunday’s thrilling win against
Germany and Olympic champions Denmark’s upset loss to Hungary, even he was enthused by the prospect of his team going all the way.
“It’s a big day for sport in Qatar,” the Spaniard gushed after plotting Germany’s downfall on Sunday.
“I am very happy. We played an excellent match. We were down by one at half-time, but we gave our best in the second half and finally we won,” he said.
Rivera said Qatar worked hard for the win and the victory proved the players gelled as a team, perhaps reacting to the negative criticism in certain quarters over the presence of several naturalised players in the squad.
“We showed that we are a team. We showed that Qatar deserve respect. We worked hard for this, so this win represents a lot for us,” added the 63-year-old.
Qatar, the Asian and Asian Games champions, had beaten Slovenia 31-29 in the 2015 tournament in Doha, with Rafael Capote scoring a whopping 12 goals in the match.
Capote was the MVP against Germany with nine goals on Sunday and Qatar will be expecting another dazzling performance from him today against Slovenia.
Qatar goalkeeper Danijel Saric has also served Qatar well bringing off several key saves in the tournament and will have to be in top form to stop the Slovenians.
In other quarter-final matches today, Sweden meet France, Spain face Croatia and Norway take on Hungary.