The dream of every host of a World Championship is to excite their own fans and come as far as possible – that is no different in Qatar. The big goal is to reach the eighth-finals in Doha, which at the same time would be the best World Championship ranking of all time for the desert country. To reach this goal, they contracted a coach who knows how to win: Valero Rivera. The Spaniard is the most successful handball coach ever. He won more than 70 titles (including five Champions League titles) with FC Barcelona. In 2013 Rivera led the Spanish national team to win the gold medal at the WCh in his hometown Barcelona. In summer 2013 Rivera became Qatar’s new coach – and he has found an almost ideal training environment as the Qatar national team is nearly nine months a year at his disposal. “It is like coaching a club,” said Rivera. And the first big success on the way to the WCh eighth-finals was soon to come: On 6 February Qatar became Asian Champion for the first time after winning this title already at junior and youth level. In a thrilling final in Manama they narrowly defeated host Bahrain with a score of 27:26 – Qatar won all matches of the Asian Championship. Along with Rivera, new players such as goalkeeper Goran Stojanovic or defence specialist Bertrand Roiné became part of the team. By a draw with Denmark and a victory over Norway, Qatar drew attention to itself already during the preparation for the Asian Championship. Until the World Championship in Qatar, Rivera wants to play as many matches against European teams as possible to raise the level. Rivera will definitely make history on 15 January 2015, as it is the first time for a coach to play in two subsequent WCh opening matches as coach of the host country.