Saric secures second win for Qatar against Argentina

Qatar finish with a four-goal victory at 21-17, and add their second set of two points to the Group D table

Round three at the 25th IHF Men’s World Championship saw a low-scoring match dominated by goalkeeping, as both Qatar and Argentina struggled to find the goal past their opponent’s defence to finish with 38 goals in the entire match.
Qatar made the best of the situation to finish with a four-goal victory at 21-17, and add their second set of two points to the Group D table.
The match opened slowly with just one goal in five minutes, to Qatar right wing Abdulla al-Karbi, and it was a sign of how the game would progress. It was not necessarily the goalkeeping that made it so difficult to find the goal, though in the ninth when the scoreboard remained at 1-0, Argentina’s Matias Schulz recorded 75 percent while Qatar’s Danijel Saric was on 100 – but only two shots had been taken against Saric while Schulz had faced four, indicating the quality of the defence from both sides, as well as the mistakes in attack.
Once al-Karbi broke the drought in the ninth, the 2015 World Championship runners-up added three consecutive goals, forcing Argentina coach Eduardo Gallardo to call the first time-out as Qatar took a 4-0 lead. Finally Diego Simonet found the goal for Argentina in the 13th minute, taking the score to 1-4, and there it stayed until Youssef Ali added another for Qatar that put the score at 5-1 in the 19th.
Schulz was the key factor in keeping Qatar from pulling further ahead, with six saves at 55 per cent at the 20-minute mark, but as the clock ticked on it became clear his work was not enough. By half-time Qatar were in front by seven, though neither team could celebrate a strong performance as it was one of the lowest scoring first periods in World Championship history.
After the half-time break, both teams woke up a little, and 15 minutes in the score stood at 16-7 in favour of Qatar as Argentina continued to have difficulty shooting against Saric. Just inside the last 10 minutes the keeper still saved at 60 percent, before he allowed Argentina’s 10th goal courtesy of Federico Fernandez in the 54th.
As Qatar led 17-8, at that point it appeared too late for the Pan American side – but they were still not done. With six consecutive goals they closed down the gap to 17-14.
Qatar responded as Ali Youssef and Abdulrazzaq Murad reclaimed a five-goal lead (19-14). Qatar’s Bertrand Roine added two more goals, while Gonzalo Carou and  Fernandez scored three between them but it wasn’t enough. (IHF.info)