Qatar’s handball team raised hopes of a strong finish at the inaugural ANOC World Beach Games after storming through their group with an all-win record. The home side, which topped Group B with 10 points, will face Australia, fourth in Group A, in the quarterfinal on Monday.

In their last group game, five-time Asian champions Qatar defeated Spain 17-16, 20-10 to maintain their strong run, having already booked their quarterfinal spot on Saturday.

Hungary and Croatia (six points each), Spain (four), Tunisia and Uruguay (two each) were placed behind the hosts in the group.
Denmark (10 points) topped Group A with an unbeaten record, with Brazil (eight), Sweden (six), Australia (four), USA (two) and Oman (0) following in that order.

In other quarterfinal matches, Denmark will face off against Spain, Sweden will meet Hungary and reigning world champions Brazil will take on Croatia.

The Brazil-Croatia match will be a repeat of the 2018 World Championship final in Russia, won by the former.

Qatar had created two huge upsets on the opening day, beating Croatia and third-placed Hungary via shootout. They then had relatively easier outings against Uruguay and Tunisia with both games ending in regular time.

If the home side can continue to harness the energy generated by hundreds of screaming fans, they stand a good chance of progressing far in the tournament.