betprepare.com

Qatar confirming their role as the favorites for gold

Under Rivera`s guidance, the Asian champions have continued with impressive performances in defense and will maintain their perfect score today

handballhungary2013.com

The United Arab Emirates were not a serious challenge for Qatar. The reigning Asian champions had a furious start of the game, took the 9-1 lead after 15 minutes and then calmly brought the game to a close. Their fantastic defense was in the spotlight once again as they managed to keep their opponents under 20 goals once again; 15 to be exact. Just to compare, the Emirates scored one goal less in January.

Stojanović wasn`t on goal in the first game against Oman, he had 8/16 and was the main pillar of their defense next to Missaoui (6/13). Qatar ended the game with excellent 71% efficiency and only Borja Vidal was under fifty-percent success rate (1/3), while Abdulrazzaq Murad was superb with 8/9. Rivera organized this team very well, enabled them to get easy wins against respectable opponents. We should not forget that the Emirates were in the semifinals of last Asian Championship and Oman got a couple of valuable wins in Bahrein.

In terms of squad and the impression left so far, Qatar are definitely among the top favorites to win the gold at the Games. Today they have to get the job done and confirm their top spot in the group, even though it would take a sensation for it not to happen.

The analysts didn`t expect much from China, considering what they showed at the tournament in Bahrein last January. However, their win over the Emirates has raised some interest for them, but their defeat against Oman compromised everything good they had done. A defeat by 8 goals leaves them no chances for quarterfinals.

China had another good start of the game but Oman dominated the rest. At half-time, the Chinese were down by 2 goals and they managed to hold on until 22-25. Oman then ended the game with a 7-2 run. This last period was fatal for Chinese ambitions as a minimal draw would give them some chance to get the second spot. Xin Zhao was their top scorer with six goals.

It seems that their game against Oman yesterday was a real display of their abilities. They have to beat Qatar to reach the quarterfinals, which is pretty unrealistic. It has been a while since an Asian team managed not to lose against Qatar and China are still miles away from that level. They will have to settle for their battle to be among the top ten teams on the tournament.