The match action in Doha keeps getting hotter and hotter at the ANOC World Beach Games – Qatar 2019 with the start of the knockout round today, Monday 14 October.

Both the men’s and women’s competitions enter the quarter-finals stage with eight teams in each just two steps away from a guaranteed medal.

In the men’s competition, numerous continental champions and medallists face off against each other hoping to make the final four.
Featured Match: Brazil vs Croatia – Quarter-Final (1730hrs)

Brazil and Croatia face off yet again as the top two ranked teams in the world with their most recent high-profile meeting the final of the 2018 IHF Men’s World Championship in Kazan, Russia, won by the South Americans 2-0.

In fact, this final was a repeat of the past two with Brazil defeating Croatia on home sand 2-1 in 2014 and Croatia defeating Brazil 2-0 at Budapest 2016.

Croatia have been indifferent in their campaign so far at Qatar 2019, losing two games, against Qatar and Hungary, with the Hungarian loss last time out littered with shooting mistakes and gaps in defence.

Whilst Brazil have the better record at Qatar 2019 so far losing just once, it was the same as the Croatia loss to Hungary as Denmark took apart the Antonio Guerra Peixe’s men easily, intercepting slow balls from defence and causing numerous technical faults from the normally faultless Brazilian men.

For any fans of beach handball around the world this clash features already-legends of the game in Ivan Juric, Gil Pires and Bruno Oliveira amongst many others, and for the neutral fan it should be a great advert of why the sport is one of the most exciting around.

Host nation take on Australia, two all-European clashes

The remaining quarter-finals feature host nation and Asian champions Qatar taking on Oceania champions Australia in the final game of the fourth matchday under the floodlights in Al Gharafa. Australia qualified for the last eight after they defeated USA via a shootout in their final preliminary round match while Qatar have won all five of their matches so far but were taken to shoot-outs by Croatia and Hungary.

Denmark look to continue their perfect record at Qatar 2019, having won all five games and not conceded a period so far. Their opponents Spain won the European title back in 2017 but Denmark are the current continental champions, defeating Spain 2-0 (23:20, 29:22) on their way to the gold.

Sweden take on Hungary in the remaining quarter-final with the two teams meeting in the group stages of the EHF EURO 2019 and Hungary winning 2-0 (23:22, 32:24). Had Hungary lost their match against Croatia and Uruguay won, they would have been out of contention for a medal, but did enough to confirm their final eight place.

“We feel very good and it’s a very big win against Croatia," said Hungary’s Viktor Jurij Melznicsuk on after his side beat Croatia 2-0 to confirm their quarter-final spot. "We now have second place in the group. It was a very difficult situation but we believed and trusted in ourselves and we hope we will be much better and do everything we can [to win]."

In the Placement Round 9-12, the USA play Uruguay and Oman take on Tunisia with the Asian side looking to grab their first victory at Qatar 2019.

Match Schedule: Men’s Competition - Monday 14 October 2019
(All times local)

Quarter-Finals
1550    Denmark vs Spain
1730    Brazil vs Croatia
1910    Sweden vs Hungary
2050    Australia vs Qatar

Placement Round 9-12
1820    United States of America vs Uruguay
2000    Oman vs Tunisia