Taubate has finished group B on third position below Barcelona and Sahel. The Brazilians beat the Qataris from Al-Rayyan in a thrilling last match of this preliminary round group by 27:26 and now will face the fourth ranked team Sydney in the first match of the placement round on Thursday 29 August. Al-Rayyan finished fourth without a point on their account.

Al-Rayyan (QAT) – Taubate (BRA) 26:27 (15:11)

Goalkeeper Maik Santos is the big hero of Taubate: By saving the final shot of Al-Rayyan’s Marko Bagaric with the final whistle, he secured the first victory for the Brazilians at the IHF Super Globe 2013 in Doha, Qatar on Tuesday (27 August). And when the match was over all Taubate players jumped on their goalkeeper.

The first 20 minutes were absolutely equal, before Al-Rayyan –backed by their stronger defence and goalkeeping – managed to march ahead for a four-goal margin at the break. But like in the matches before, Taubate did not surrender but stood strong, trying all to get their first victory.

But as Al-Rayyan kept their efficiency in attack, the Brazilians were not able to catch-up in the beginning of the second half. But when goalkeeper Maik Santos improved, Taubate reduced the gap goal by goal. In minute 48 the result was leveled for the first time at 22:22 –then Taubate even added two more goals to forge ahead to 24:22, but missed the great chance for a pre-decision, when Fabio Fanini failed with a penalty shot.

So Al-Rayyan managed to return back on track, leading again after a triple strike. But the Brazilians were strong enough to stand the pressure and to turn the roller coaster again by three straight goals for 27:25. Rayyan reduced again for 26:27 – and had the last attack of the match, but Bagaric missed the great chance to score by counter attack against Santos.

 

 

Statements after the match:

Iljia Puljevic, coach Al-Rayyan:  We were unlucky in the end after we had played very well for 40 minutes. We could not finish successful, as the Taubate goalkeeper improved and we lost too much power in the last 20 minutes.

Hamad Abdulla, player Al-Rayyan: I don’t know what happened to us in the second half after we really played very good. We have good players, even from our national team, but I cannot explain what happened in the end.

Marcus Oliveira, coach Taubate: We had three injured players today, so we had problems in the beginning. But when we changed our defence to a 5:1, we were successful. But of course we were lucky that our goalkeeper saved the last shot.

Guilherme Oliveira, player Taubate: It was a really exciting match and we were the lucky winners. We played much better than in the first two matches from minute 40 on. Now we are so happy that we have taken our first victory in this competition.