Cairo (AFP)
Qatar shattered Argentina's dream of reaching the quarter-finals of a handball World Cup for the first time, by winning after the 26-25 suspense on Monday to complete the final table in Cairo.
Last qualified, Qatar will face Sweden on Wednesday at the same time as two other quarter-finals, Spain - Norway and France - Hungary.
In this World Cup behind closed doors, Egypt, deprived of the public, will challenge defending champion Denmark a little earlier.
Almost eliminated after their defeats against Croatia and Denmark, Qatar reversed the match and the classification in Group II to snatch the last ticket at the expense of Argentina and Croatia.
A scenario made possible by the surprise setback of the Croats against the Argentines (23-19) on Friday, which led to the resignation of the Croatian coach Lino Cervar.
The Argentines in tears at the final whistle, after having largely led in the first period, the Croats could still win the bet thanks to a success over Denmark, already qualified.
But even without Mikkel Hansen, still sick, the world champions made short work of the vice-champions of Europe (38-26).
It was a resounding failure for Croatia, which had not finished beyond 8th place since 2001. But also for all of the former Yugoslavia: Serbia did not qualify for Egypt, where the Macedonia played the stooges and Slovenia were eliminated on Sunday after their draw against the host country.
Qatar, coached by Spaniard Valero Rivera, joined the top 8 for the third time in the 4 editions.
At home in 2015, he reached the final against France.
In Group I, Hungary, already qualified, obviously preferred to face the Blues in the quarterfinals rather than Norway before a possible semi-final against Denmark: neither the center-half Maté Lekai, nor the pivot Bence Banhidi, nor the goalkeeper Roland Mikler, nor winger Pedro Rodriguez played the match won by Spain (36-28) which ends the main round unbeaten.
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