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Qatar's Asian club champions El Jaish stormed into the semi-finals of the 2014 IHF Super Globe handball championship after an impressive 37-27 win over Pan American champions Taubate in a Group A preliminary match yesterday. |
At the Qatar Handball Association complex, both the teams played a fast-paced game in the first half with little to differentiate between the two. At the break, Jaish enjoyed a slender 15-14 advantage.
While that set up an interesting passage of play, but what followed was a spectacular dominance by the Qatari team in the second half, led by their right-back Zarko Markovic.
The refreshments seemed to do wonders for the Qatari side as they sped to a three-point lead within the first five minutes of the post-break session. While Taubate came back to make it 19-20, El Jaish hit the top gear to make a series of shots at the post.
Montenegrian Markovic, one of three new European players to join El Jaish this year, was in top form in the second half, scoring all his eight goals of the match in that session.
Backed by their goal-machine Markovic, El Jaish were on roll at one stage, collecting seven points on the trot to open up a 10-point advantage (32-22). That lead stayed till the end as Taubate players struggled with fatigue and El Jaish's aggressive style of play.
El Jaish coach Zoran Kastratovic was delighted with his team's performance and credited his team's water-tight defence in the second half for the victory.
“I want to congratulate my players for the extraordinary job they did, especially in defence and to our opponents for their efforts, especially in the first half," he said.
“We were the better side today, although I feel that the 10-goal difference proved a bit too much for Taubate. My players did a good job with the 6-0 defence, with great support from our goalkeeper, and we were clever in our attacks too. We expected Taubate’s deep defence, that’s why we played with two playmakers," Kastratovic added.
Marcus Oliveira, Taubate's coach, rued the missed opportunity and blamed the defeat for his team's poor performance in the second session.
“In the first half we were great, but after the break we failed to rise to the occasion. We made too many mistakes. I hope we will be better tomorrow (against Al Ahli),” said Oliveira, whose team are now out of semifinal contention.
Earlier in the first half, both sides displayed speed and power as nine goals was scored in just seven minutes with Taubate taking a 6-3 lead. That forced El Jaish coach Kastratovic to call for a time-out and that revived the army club's fortune.
For the Qatar side, new recruit Ahmed Elahmar of Egypt was the key player in the first half as he kept his team in the game, finding the target four times. Right-back Elahmar added five more goals in the second half and proved a perfect partner to Markovic.
Having won two matches on the trot, Jaish face European champions Flensburg today and coach Kastratovic hoped that they will continue to improve. “I am always saying we should take it one game at a time. Now we’ll concentrate on our next match (with Flensburg). If we lose we will face one of the best teams in the world, FC Barcelona, but we will give everything we have against the Germans,” he said.