Al-Arabi, Khaleej to clash in Asian handball finals

KUWAIT: Today (Monday) marks the end of the 26th Asian Men’s Club League Handball Championship being held in Kuwait with a match between Kuwait (Kwt) and Qadisiya (Kwt) to decide third and fourth place, and the final match will be between Al-Arabi (Qatar) and Khaleej (Saudi Arabia). The matches will be held at Sheikh Saad Al-Abdallah covered halls complex at Sabah Al-Salem area.

Khaleej team, which won all its matches in the preliminaries, and went past the host Qadisiya Club in the semifinals with the score of 30-29, reaching the final match in hopes of winning the title for the first time in its history.

Khaleej will rely on a highly talented group of players, most notably Hussain Al-Sayyad (Bahrain), Youssef bin Ali, Shinnosuk Tokuda (JPN), and goalkeeper Mohammed Abdulhussain. Meanwhile Al-Arabi which led the second group in the preliminaries on goal difference with Qadisiya, and beat Kuwait in the semifinal match, seeks to win the title for the second time. Al-Arabi hangs its hopes on players Wajdi Sinen, Andelrahman Tareq, Rafael Capote, and goalkeeper Irhad Alihodzic.

The yellows suffered a loss!

Qadisiya lost its semifinal match to Khaleej (Saudi) by the score of 30-29. Qadisiya which was (4) goals behind in the first half, came back in the second half and went ahead with the score of 22-21 in the 14th minutes with the heroics of its Tunisian goalkeeper Asil Namli, in addition to the shots of the Match MVP Valadan Lipovina (Montenegro).

Qadisiya could not maintain its uprising due to lack of physical fitness, prompting coach Waleed Salmeen to rest the starters but substitutes were not lucky enough, allowing Khaleej to come back and ended the match in its favor.

President of Qatar Handball Association Ahmad Al-Shaabi lauded the 26th edition of the Asian Clubs Championships adding "it has been a long time since Qadisiya organized such a major continental championship, but it succeeded in the organization and the championship came out great in all aspects.

President of Saudi Arabia’s Khaleej Club Alaa Al-Hamal congratulated the fans for reaching the final match for the first time in its history. He said the match with Qadisiya was tough.