Defending champions Al Najma made short work of Oman’s Ahli Sidab in their second Group A match of the 39th GCC Clubs Handball Tournament as they cantered to a dominant 33-25 win at the Khalifa Sports City Arena last night.
Having sped to a 15-10 lead at half-time, Al Najma quickly found themselves ahead 22-14 in the second half with 20 minutes left in the game.
The excellent Bilal Basham soon made it 23-14 but Ahli Sidab’s Abdulaziz Suliman scored a fine goal in reply just 30 seconds later with the scoreboard reading 23-15 in favour of the champion Bahraini club.
Al Najma were unfazed and two quick goals by the brilliant Qasim Qambar and extremely agile Ahmed Jassim over the next couple of minutes increased their lead to 10 points at 25-15 with just 15 minutes left till full-time.
Qais Mohammed then scored an athletic goal for Ahli Sidab but Al Najma’s lanky Egyptian import Hassan Qaddah quickly scored another one for the defending champions to make it 26-16.
A large crowd of Al Najma supporters, who had cheered and clapped their team on continuously, began to chant a popular song in unison as the game entered its last 10 minutes with the Bahraini club leading 27-18.
Over the next five minutes, Al Najma consolidated their lead further with goals by Jassim, Qaddah, Mujtaba Yaseen and Hassan Mirza. Ahli Sidab tried desperately to keep up, courtesy of successful scoring attempts by Hamd Saif (twice) and Saeed Isa but the scoreboard showed the defending champions ahead, 29-21.
The noise level in the large hall had now risen by several decibels as the Al Najma fans, believing that victory was imminent, sang and cheered louder and louder with each passing minute.
With two minutes left, Al Najma were still leading by 10 points at 32-22 and even though Isa (twice) and Hasan Ali Al Jabri managed to score three more goals for Ahli Sidab, they were never going to be enough. And Adel Mohammed still had enough time to score one last goal for the Bahraini club before the final buzzer sounded with the scoreboard confirming an emphatic victory for the defending champions.
Clash
Al Najma now lead the four-team table with four points, ahead of Qatar’s Al Arabi club who also have four points, because of goal difference.
Ahli Sidab and Kuwait’s Al Salmiya languish at the bottom of the table after both teams lost each of their first two games.
The stage is now set for a mouthwatering top-of-the-table clash between Al Najma and Al Arabi at 7pm tomorrow which will decide which of the two teams tops the group.
Meanwhile, Bahrain’s Al Ahli club will face off today against Saudi Arabia’s Al Safa in a crucial Group B game that they have to win in order to stay in contention for the semi-finals.
The Bahraini club are currently placed last in the group after they lost their opening game last Thursday to table-leaders Al Kuwait 27-20, while Al Safa and the UAE’s Al Sharjah club drew a thriller 24-24, also on Thursday, to get one point each.
The Al Ahli-Al Safa game is scheduled to start at 7pm.
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