Russia easily beat BIH for 19th place

From Latiful Karim Khan. Duhail Handball Sports Hall, Doha, Qatar. January 27, 2015: Russia have beaten Bosnia and Herzegovina 42:28 in the battle for 19th place at the 24th Men’s World Handball Championship in Qatar. The Russian outfit showed its best performance in Qatar, but unfortunately for them, it took them until their last match in Doha to pull this off.

15 goals in the first 12 minutes of the match was a clear sign that defense wasn’t the focus of this last challenge. The Russian players had more to offer in the run and gun game and they were up 9:6 early on.

The Bosnian coach Dragan Markovic called a time-out and that gave way to improvement in their performance as the Bosnians started a 7:1 run in the next seven minutes (13:10).

However, Russian coach Oleg Kuleshov had more fresh players in rotation. Only three of them didn’t score before the half-time buzzer Igropulo, Dibirov and Kudinov. A team which ranked seventh in the last World Championship 2013 in Spain, ended the half with 10 goals in 10 minutes, which was enough to push ahead (20:16).

The Balkan boys returned to the court in the second half in better mood, ready to fight for their second victory on their debut on this international stage, but with all their effort they could only decrease the Russian advantage to 20:18. The Bosnian left wing Alen Ovcina missed the chance to put his team closer in the 35th minute just when Russian’s furious run began.

The Russian left back Alexander Dereven was one of the protagonists of probably the best 20-minute performances of the tournament. The Bosnian defense had no answer to this, and to the rampant fast-breaks provided by the wingers Kovalev and Dibirov.

After 45 minutes of the match, Russia were nine goals up (30:21), when it became clear who the winner was going to be.

The Russian gunners set a new record for the number of goals in one match (42). The most prolific was Dmitry Kovalev with six goals, while the Bosnian right back Dejan Malinovic had also netted six.

Right back Samvel Aslanyan of Russia on the tournament’s 42-goal record they set today:”It sounds good, but who cares after what has happened here? Today we played by far the best game here especially in offense and we netted 42 goals, but our overall performance has been very poor.”
On the reasons of their poor form, Aslanyan said,”There are many reasons which we can’t explain. Our physical condition was poor and we didn’t play defense, and didn’t show stability. But in sports you have to deal with results and not with the impression you left the crowd with.”