Qatar Olympic Committee
The Qatari beach handball team qualified for the semifinals of the 7th AHF Asian Beach Handball Championship held in Weihai, China, and qualified for the 2020 IHF Men's Beach Handball Championships in Italy, after defeating Chinese Taipei 2-0 on Wednesday.
On Thursday, Qatar will face Vietnam in the semifinals who qualified in the top spot of their group.
Despite the equalizer of Chinese Taipei in the middle of the first half, it ended 18-6 in favor of Qatar, and in the second half Qatar held off Chinese Taipei's efforts with the half ending 22-17 to Qatar, who won the match 2-0.
Qatar coach Salim Al Dosari said the game was tough because it complicated calculations. He said it was necessary to beat Chinese Taipei in order to qualify for the semifinals and that Vietnam is a stronger opponent.
For his part, captain of the Qatar team Mohamed Hassan said that the game against Vietnam on Thursday will be easier to face than Chinese Taipei because Qatar have now qualified for the 2020 IHF Men's Beach Handball Championships in Italy, therefore they got rid of the pressure to qualify. However, he noted that Vietnam are a strong team and they must play carefully.
While Qatar and Vietnam qualified for the semifinals of Group A, Group B's clash intensified after Oman lost to Thailand 2-1, Iran beat Pakistan 2-0, Iran secured qualification on eight points, while Oman and Thailand on six points was limited to the second qualification card.