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Tribune News Network
Doha
The Qatar handball team will leave for Egypt on Thursday to participate in the 27th Men’s World Championship which starts January 13 (Wednesday) and runs until Jan. 31.
The Qatari delegation is led by President of Qatar Handball Association (QHA) Ahmed Al Shaabi, and includes member of the Board of Directors Khalifa Tayseer, Director of the Team Youssef Al Hail, and administrative manager of the team Youssef Al Moallem. The technical staff is led by Spanish head coach Valero Rivera, in addition to 20 players.
The Qatari national team will compete in the World Championship in Group C, which includes Croatia, Japan and Angola.
Qatar will play with Angola on Friday, Japan on Sunday, and Croatia on Tuesday.
In recent years, Qatar have established themselves as a dominant handball force in Asia. Qatar have won the Asian title thrice and also reached the World Championship final on home soil in 2015.
“We wanted to play a big number of friendly matches against strong teams, but we were not able to do so due to the COVID-19 situation. The matches that the national team played were limited. We played friendly matches against Tunisia, Argentina and Spain,” the QHA President Ahmed Al Shaabi had
remarked recently.
He also said the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the preparations of other teams, especially European sides, is relatively less as they have strong competitive leagues.
“Usually we try to cover this big difference in preparation against our European rivals by conducting long overseas camps and bringing in prominent professionals at our clubs, but this did not happen in the last season (in Qatar) and therefore our rivals have the advantage in the World Championship,” he said.
He explained that the presence of coach Rivera is one of the positive factors for the Qatar squad.
He said coach Rivera knows the rival teams, their players and tactics well and this should help the team at the world championship.
“We have been facing great challenges after we reached the World Championship (Qatar 2015) final. We cannot deny that the teams in our World Championship group – Croatia, Japan and Angola – are tough opponents,” said Al Shaabi.
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14/01/2021
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