DOHA.- La Argentina won a historic qualification to the second phase of the World Handball after beating Russia 30-27 in the final day of group D. In this way, the Gladiators repeated a pass to the knockout stage had achieved only twice in 2001 and 2011.

While he handed a tie, the group leader Eduardo Gallardo scored his second win in the tournament and beat "group of death" with two wins (the one today and against Saudi Arabia), one draw and two defeats against Denmark (against Poland and Germany).


Argentina celebrated a historic victory and a spot in the knockout stages. Photo: Reuters
After a terrific start, where gladiators were placed 5-1 with three consecutive goals from Diego Simonet Russia began to hit their offensive and managed to take the lead.

At that time the most critical moment for the Argentine team came when a 9-6 defeat partial expulsion of Sebastian Simonet added.

However, Argentina managed to react and after a tense game with parity as axis, went into halftime with a 17-16 lead.

In complement, in a close game, Russia started better but quickly Argentina managed to impose his game to achieve a three-goal lead (26-23), who managed to keep until the end to ensure the celebration of victory and classification.

Federico Pizarro, author of nine victories, was the Argentine top scorer, while the Chinese had its great performance and was named the MVP of the game.

To put in context, Argentina only managed this passport in France 2001, when he fell in the second round against Sweden (32-23) in Marseille and Sweden 2011, when after passing the first phase had three defeats in the second phase (Croatia, Denmark and Serbia).

The group D, thus classified the Germans, Poles, Danes and Argentines. Now the Gladiators should expect the definition of the area C to meet the first ranked opponent and next Monday in the second round.

"It takes courage what we did because we play as equals with four European teams. The Russian was the most difficult because we played a chance to happen," said coach Eduardo Gallardo after the win ..