Qatar go down fighting to Macedonia

Agencies/Sevilla

FYR Macedonia after their close 30:28 win over Chile on Saturday did not show a perfect performance, but took their second victory by beating Qatar 34-30.

The Europeans had a splendid start, scoring their first 15 goals from 15 attempts, while the Qatari defence could not stop the powerful Macedonian shooters like top star Kiril Lazarov, who scored six of his in total nine goals before the break. The consequence was a ten-goal difference at 16-6 already after 20 minutes.

But then the Macedonians hit the break hard, lost their concentration and allowed Qatar to reduce the gap to 13:21 at the break. Those who thought the Europeans would manage to return to their usual style in the second half were proved wrong. The Asian runners-up stood brave in defence and took the profit from a huge number of Macedonian mistakes and missed chances in attack.

And suddenly the Macedonian advance melted goal by goal – and the Spanish spectators started to cheer for the Qataris, hoping for a big sensation. Macedonian coach Zvonko Shundovski took two time-outs in only five minutes, but he could not wake up his team, which played like in lethargy despite the great support from the stands.

With goalkeeper Mohsin Yafai clearly improving compared to the opening stage, Qatar flew on the wing of success. In only eight minutes they reduced the gap from 17:26 to 26:28 and still had ten minutes until the end. But finally the Europeans got themselves out of the mess, still not doing more than they must, but extending the gap to five goals again to 32:27 backed by the late saves of goalkeeper Borko Ristovski. But Qatar could feel like a little winner despite their second defeat, as they not only improved clearly in contrast to their opener against Denmark (27:41), but also showed a convincing performance.

“We had more energy than yesterday and we were more stable from the psychological point of view. But we started very bad, what needs to be discussed. Because of this big difference we were not able to turn the match around completely. After the break we really played well in defence with only minor mistakes,” said coach Qatar Borut Macek.

In another match, brilliant goalkeeping by Marouane Magaiez and eight goals by Wael Jallouz paved the way saw Tunisia register a shock win over Germany 25-23.