Qatar beat Poland for the final!

Posted on 30. January 2015.

In the first semi-final Poland lost against Qatar 29:31.

The first half began quite tightly; Poles maintained 1-goal-edge but it got endangered when Grabarczyk had to left the court for 2 minutes. But instead, Poland made their lead bigger to two goals. After more or less 12 minutes Goran Stojanović was replaced by Danijel Šarić in Qatari goal and it started gradually making a difference. In 15. minute Poles had to manage being double short-handed when Rojewski got sent off while M. Jurecki was still witing for his suspension to end, but attacking foul of Qatar let them keep the distance. However, missed throws of Poles gave Qatar a chance to draw and so they did in 20. minute when Rafael Capote scored for 10:10. Polish defence wasn’t as good as it was in previous games, fast Qataris made use of every slip; Szmal also was off his game so Wyszomirski got his chance. On the other side of the court it took Qatar one save of Šarić to get the 1-goal-lead (12:11, 23. minute) and make it 2 a moment later. Coach Biegler decided to enter Bielecki, but he soon got back on the bench as during the attack he got kicked by one of the defenders. In the meantime Biegler received a yellow card for his behaviour as he got too angry when Bielecki was lying on the ground looking bad and Qatar scored a goal. Bad last 10 minutes in attack made Poland lose 13:16 at the break.

The beginning of the second half belonged to goalkeepers – Szmal saved Hadi Hamdoon’s penalty throw but it was Šarić again who was more efficient. Polish defence was terrible, attack didn’t look good either and Biegler called for a time-out. Poles quickly cut the gap by 2 goals but the joy was immediately ceased by 2-minute-suspension for B. Jurecki. In the 42. minute Poland had a chance to play in a powerplay for the first time when Hassan Mabrouk got sent off but Šarić denied them the opportunity to get closer. Last 10 minutes for Poland was a chase but they managed to reduce the gap only to two goals. They could have had a chance to score a goal for 22:23 but referees allowed Žarko Marković’s incorrectly scored goal and instead the result was 21:24. Despite improving the attack, Poles made disastrous errors in defence allowing Qataris score unattended even while being shorthanded. Penalty throw for 30:27 in 59. minute sealed the deal and Qatar could be sure of winning the game. In the end they won 31:29.

Right after the game the whole Polish team approached the referees to congratulate and applaud sarcastically.