Qataris to face Kuwaitis in semi-finals

By Yash Mudgal/DohaIt’s Qatar vs Kuwait in both the 17th Asian Handball Clubs’ League Championship semi-finals after Kuwaiti club Al-Qurain defeated Jordan’s Al Salt Club 22-21 to seal the last semi-final spot yesterday.Qatar’s Lekhwiya and defending champion El Jaish, and Al Kuwait Club had already qualified for the last four stage.What appeared to be an easy march on paper for Qurain, as the Jordanians so far had lost all their three games, turned out be a trickier than expected at the newly-built Ali Bin Hamad Al-Attiya Sports Hall.Within minutes Qurain gained a 5-1 lead, but the match evolved into a hard, physical fight between two teams. The battle saw a very high number of suspensions and red cards.From the 15th minute onward, the match emerged into a neck-to-neck tie. In a thrilling climax, Qurain won the game 22-21 sending Salt to the 9-10 placement match.“They gave us a hard time because we didn’t reach our usual standards. I honestly don’t know what went wrong today. Apart from the third game against Lekhwiya we feel satisfied with the handball we have played so far and I believe we deserved a place in the semi-finals,” Qurain’s Abdulsalam Salem said.Omani club Ahli Sidab seemed capable of putting an end to their winning draught in their last group game against Al Khalij Club, but they eventually suffered their fourth successive defeat 31-24. Thanks to their second win, the Saudis finished third in Group B and they will now play in the main round tomorrow, while Sidab will confront Salt Club for the ninth place.In the first half, Khalij continuously kept the lead, but every time they built a two-goal or a three-goal lead, Sidab players managed to make it all-square and they even turned the table and moved up 17-16 in the 34th minute a. However, a lopsided 9-2 score in favour of Khalij in the next 12 minutes ensured the Saudis were not threatened again.In the third group game, Qatar’s Lekhwiya entered as favourites against Gharafa. Victory for Lekhwiya looked imminent given their seven-point lead after the first quarter. But the all-Qatari duel took an unexpected turn — Gharafa made a tremendous improvement in defense, forcing their opponents to make mistakes. In attack they increased efficiency and came back goal-by-goal.By the end of the second half, Gharafa had managed to take the lead and seemed to be on their way to a surprise victory that would have meant a last-minute qualification for the semi-final spot.But things changed for the worse for Gharafa in the last ten minutes of the game. After Gharafa received three two-minute suspensions at the same time, opponents Lekhwiya saw their chance and quickly came back into lead. Still the underdogs fought for victory but missed out on too many chances in the hectic last minutes of the game. Lekhwiya won 29-25 which puts Gharafa in fourth place in the group.Defending champions Jaish edged past Group’s B co-leaders Kuwait Club 33-29 and continued their unbeaten run at the championship to set up a semi-final against Qurain. Their powerful back line and experienced goalkeeper Nandor Fazekas’ saves in crucial moments helped the Qataris secure their lead and overcome the stiff opposition from the Kuwaitis, especially in the first-half.Jaish are certainly the team to beat at Asia’s most prestigious club event, showing remarkable consistency in all their matches and quality in both their defence and offence. Al Kuwait’s star player Mohammad al-Gharaballi didn’t reach his usual firing standards and his lack of scoring efficiency prevented his team from being competitive for more than thirty minutes.