The victory against the 10-time African champions will surely be a morale booster for the former World Championship silver medallists Qatar.
Qatar team, coached by Spaniard Valero Rivera, underwent several training camps in the last few months besides featuring in a number of friendly matches including games against top clubs of Qatar. Now the friendly international tournament against European champions Spain, South American winners Argentina and Tunisia will serve as a vital preparations for the Worlds.
African runners-up Tunisia yesterday took an early lead before the hosts levelled the scores at two-each. The Tunisians were once again in the lead after scoring back to back goals while Qatar’s score stood at four. Qatar again fought back to level the scores at eight and didn’t look back thereafter. The hosts scored in regular intervals while Tunisians tried to catch up with them after trailing 8-12 behind. The halftime scores read 18-14 in favour of Qatar.
After the break, Tunisians made several attempts to catch up but Qatar were smart enough to make use of most of the opportunities to score. At one stage, Qatar led by eight goals at 28-20. Tunisia, desperately in need of a heroic comeback, then scored four in a row to narrow the gap. However, Qatar did not allow the visitors to make any upsets and went on to clinch the win in the tournament opener with a 33-30 scoreline.
The five-day event of continental giants, being staged as part of preparations for the next month’s World Handball Championships in Egypt. Al Annabi will next face Argentina tomorrow at 6pm after Spain open their campaign against Tunisia at 4pm.
The third day of the event will see Argentina taking on Spain before squaring off with Tunisia on the final day, with Qatar wrapping up the event in anticipated match against Spain.
At next month’s IHF event, Al Annabi, drawn in Group C, open their campaign against Angola in what will be a rematch of one of the most memorable matches from 2019 World Championships. The EURO 2020 runners-up Croatia and Japan are the other teams in their group.
Prior to the match, Qatar coach Rivera said the friendly tournament will allow him to try out many players and work on the tactics. Rivera wanted to have a camp in a European country but the travel restrictions due to Covid-19 pandemic meant Qatar had to train at home.