Qatar surge past Japan in main round

Qatar began their campaign in the main round of the Asian Handball Championship with a clinical 40-23 win over Japan here yesterday.
The defending champions, who stormed through the preliminary rounds unbeaten, once again didn’t encounter much of a challenge from their opponents by virtue of their supremacy in both offence and defence.
As is the case usually, both teams had an equal share of the initial exchanges but once the game was a few minutes old, Qatar simply scythed through the Japanese defence, taking a 14-8 lead and then closing the first half with a massive 19-9 advantage.
Once again it was Rafael Capote, Anis Zawawi, Frankis Marzo and Abdulrazzaq Murad who excelled for Qatar, while goalkeeper Aljosa Cudic kept the Japanese at bay with some brilliant saves from penalties.
In fact, Cudic put on such a splendid show that he was adjudged the Most Valuable Player of the match despite being substituted at half-time.
Frankis Marzo top scored for Qatar with four goals, while Houssem Romane scored three, all from penalty throws.
Qatar Handball Federation President Ahmed al-Shaabi was delighted with the performance of the team.
“It was a great show by the team. They deserved to win and it will surely boost their confidence when they meet Bahrain today,” said al-Shaabi.
“Our eventual goal is to qualify for the World Cup but of course we will be also happy to win the Asian Championship for the third straight time. That would be some achievement.”
Qatar player Youssef Ben Ali added that beating Japan was a great achievement.
“We played a tactical match. Everyone played their part. This was a team performance,” said Youssef.
“Initially, however, Japan managed to put up a tough fight but once we found our groove there was no stopping us.”
But Youssef also warned his team that they cannot afford to be complacent against Bahrain today.
“We have to play with concentration and determination against them. We need to keep our focus,” he added.
Qatar coach Valero Rivera also echoed Youssef’s view. 
Bahrain are a strong team, one of the favourites along with Qatar. They won’t be easy to beat and we will have to put in a strong performance against them,” said Rivera.