Qatar players celebrate after defeating Bahrain to win the Asian Handball Championship yesterday.
It was the perfect movie script. The only issue was that it was happening in real leaving a lot of people with nervously bitten nails. The way the game ebbed and flowed yesterday, it could have easily given any sports movie a run for its money.
In the end it was the Qatar players who were celebrating wildly after defeating Bahrain 27-26 to become the Asian Handball champions.
The Khalifa Sports City Gym in Bahrain’s Isa Town saw a closely fought encounter yesterday. It was 60 minutes of exciting handball as the two teams didn’t let up the intensity throughout.
But it didn’t begin all that well for Qatar. Their famed attacking play didn’t click and they were trailing Bahrain 5-7 after 15 minutes. But Qatar’s Eldar Memisevic scored two quick-fire goals to put his team on par at 7-7.
The two teams were tied 14-14 at half time.
Qatar’s goalkeeper Goran Stojanovic, who was in stellar form against Iran in the semi-final was not at his best initially but it was his resilient resistance in front of the posts that helped the visitors in the end.
Bahrain created quite a few tense moments for Qatar as they narrowed down the gap to a single point (26-27) with just 40 seconds on the clock. But Qatar players displayed a strong defence and great goalkeeping to prevent the hosts from scoring.
For Bahrain Jasim Alsalatna, Hasan Alsamahiji and Hussain Alsayyad were the star players but their efforts were in vain.
Qatar had automatically qualified for the 2015 IHF Men’s World Championship as hosts.
This means that Bahrain, Iran and the UAE, who finished second, third and fourth respectively in the continental event, also booked their berths for the World Championship.
A perfect movie script didn't we say? One that ended extremely happily for Qatar.
