(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Defending champions FC Barcelona and Qatar's El Jaish got off to a winning start on the opening day of IHF Super Globe Handball Championship that kicked off here yesterday at the newly-built Qatar Handball Association Complex.
The Catalans overcame spirited Al Sadd 34-25.
The Spanish side that lifted the last year's trophy after defeating HSV Hamburg in the final last year, scored 17 goals in each half to start the eight-team event on a winning note.
Barcelona were leading 17-12 in first half of the second Group B match of the day. However, Al Sadd, the host club proved their skills with a gallant performance against the European giants.
Before the match which was the last of the day, an impressive opening ceremony for the event held in which Minister of Youth and Sports H E Salah bin Ghanem bin Nasser Al Ali was the chief guest.
Earlier in the day, Asian champions El Jaish overcame Al Ahli 28-23 in the all-Qatari Group A encounter, to live up to the expectations. The match, watched by avid fans of the respective clubs, saw a fast start with both teams exchanging goals in short intervals.
Al Ahli, the wild card entrants of the event, started off well and held their strong opponents 10-10 in the first half.
However, El Jaish, the main hope for the host nation in the event, dominated the second session, scoring 18 more goals for an impressive victory.
El Jaish coach Zoran Kastratovic was ecstatic with the victory in the first match.
"Congratulations to my players for this very important win in a difficult match. Congratulations also to Al Ahli as they played well."
El Jaish player Ahmed Elahmar praised his team's performance.
"It was a crucial match for us. Al Ahli performed pretty well in the last Qatari league and winning against them is a good result."
The losing team's coach Mahmoud Najji complained about lack of preparations.
"The team performed well in the first half but the lack of preparations hampered our performance in the second half. We just got a few weeks to prepare as we were not sure about our participation," Al Ahli coach said.
"The organisers should have finalised our entry before," Najji added.
In the first Group A match, SG Flensburg Handewit, the European Champions League winners, made a winning debut at the Super Globe when they thrashed Brazilian side Taubate 28-22.
Taubate, the Pan American club champions, started off well, particularly their goal-keeper Liuz Nascimen, to put up a spirited display to pose problems for the European side. Taubate also stunned their opponents by some impressive hammer shots.
However, Flensburg managed to take a 12-9 lead in the first half. They came back stronger in the second half and produced a better show in both defense and attack. The European side fired 17 goals in the final session to clinch a 28-22 victory in their opening match.
Despite the win, the winning team's coach stressed that his team will have to show improvement in the next games.
"I am satisfied with the results but not with our performance," said Ljubomir Vranjes.
"The Brazilian side played the first half very well and created problems for us. There is room for improvement and of course if we want to win the trophy we have to play better in the coming games."
Earlier, in the first match of the tournament, Esperance Tunis, the African champions prevailed over Sydney University HC, representative of Oceania region 29-20 to record their first win in the Group B match.
The Tunis based club's players displayed consistent show in both the halves to claim winning points. They were leading 14-5 in the first half and added 15 more goals to win the match in one-sided affair.
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