By Abdellatif Sharaa

KUWAIT: Kuwait National Handball will face its Iranian counterpart at 8 pm at Sheikh Saad Al-Abdallah hall with group 2 competition of the second round of the Asian championship which qualify for the world cup. Meanwhile Qatar will play South Korea at 6 pm. In Group 1 UAE will play Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia will play Japan. The first and second teams in each group qualify for the world cup directly, as well as the semi-finals.

Kuwait was on top of Group 4 with 6 points after defeating UAE 20-17 during the match, as UAE was second, Iraq third and Hong Kong fourth. The first group was headed by Bahrain, which qualified along with Iran to the second round, New Zealand was third. Qatar and Japan qualified from Group 2 as China was third. The third group saw Saudi Arabia and Korea qualify, while Australia was third.

Kuwait team will have a tough task when it faces Iran's team which is a strong and experienced team and shoots very well from the nine meters line, with solid defence. Kuwait players must comply with instructions of the coaches, and not to hasten attempts of scoring, as the zone defence of 5-1 or 3-2-1 will be ideal against a team that shoots from a distance.

Kuwait coach Aameen said all quarter finals matches are considered finals as far as he is concerned, adding that all teams in the second group are tough. He said his goal is to reach the World Cup finals in 2021, to have Kuwait handball restore its normal status. Assistant coach Mohammad Mubarak said that his team thinks about the match with Iran only, because it is a well developed team, and winning this match means getting strongly into competition within the quarter finals, which is more difficult.

He said the rest day will be beneficial for preparations, and "we promise the fans with a good result, and ask them for their support in the court as always." Kuwait players were pleased for being on top of Group 4 through three wins, and promised to give better performance during the quarter finals, as Mahdi Al-Qallaf said qualifying with the full six points made Kuwait fans happy, as they were always behind the players.

Goalkeeper Ali Safar congratulated his teammates for being on top and thanked fans for attending the team is continually improving and hoped for the best. Captain of Bahrain team Hussein Al-Sayyad lauded the performance of his teammates during the match with Iran during the third match, adding that the win against Iran was very difficult, especially that some of its players play in European teams.