The Peninsula
Eyeing positive results, Asian powerhouse Qatar resume their extensive preparation for next month’s IHF Men’s World Championship, with the team management announcing four international friendlies before the national side’s departure for the biennial competition to be co-hosted by Germany and Denmark.
Qatar, the Asian Games gold medallists, will play two matches each against Belarus and Bosnia in the final phase of preparatory camp, which begins in Doha today, before leaving for Denmark on January 8 to appear in the preliminary stage of the World Championship.
Qatar will play Belarus on December 26 and 28 while their friendlies against Bosnia are scheduled on January 3 and 4.
France, who have won the 2015 (Doha) and 2017 (Paris) World Championship editions will be once again the hot favourites in the event that will run from January 10 to 27, 2019.
Qatar, the 2015 silver medallists, are in Group D along with Angola, Egypt, Hungary, Sweden and Argentina.
World champions France are in Group A which also includes Russia, Germany, Serbia, Brazil and South Korea. Group B comprises Spain, Croatia, Macedonia, Iceland, Bahrain and Japan while co-hosts Denmark spearhead Group C that also has Norway, Austria, Tunisia, Chile and Saudi Arabia.
Qatar will start their campaign against Angola on January 11 and will play against Egypt, two days later. Al Anabi’s next two matches are scheduled on January 14 and 16 against Hungary and Sweden respectively. Qatar will play their last preliminary round match against Argentina on January 17.
The first target for the coach Valero Rivera’s side will be to qualify for the main rounds, which will see top three teams from each group after preliminary round, competing for the finals.
Rivera said the team management was leaving no stone upturned to prepare team for the tough challenge.
“It is one of the toughest events where the world’s best come teams come to compete and we are doing our best to prepare the team,” Rivera said. “The upcoming four practice games will be helpful for the team. These games will give us good opportunity to plan our final strategy,” the coach said refereeing to matches against Belarus and Bosnia.
Qatar, in the first phase of preparations, also held a two-week training camp in Spain, which concluded earlier this week.
“It was a constructive tour of Spain where team underwent preparations in various aspects including fitness and skills,” said the Qatar coach.
“I am confident with our team’s preparations. We have achieved our targets (in Spain). We are focusing to get best advantage from the remaining days so our team go in the mega event fully prepared,” added Rivera.
Following the four friendlies, the Qatar coach will announce the final squad from 22 probables he announced earlier.
Al Anabi’s best performance in the IHF Men’s World Championship came at home in 2015 when they stunned many top ranked teams on it’s way to the final where they went down fighting against France. Qatar won gold medal in Asian Games after defeating Bahrain in Jakarta.