Slovenia were confident ahead of the match with the hosts, having beaten Chile and Belarus to start the tournament with two wins, but the Qataris, powered by the home crowd, proved to be much tougher than expected.

Slovenia fell to a 1-4 hole at the beginning, but managed to recover and take a two-goal lead mid-way through the first half. But the inspired Qatar managed to turn things around by the end of the period to take a 18-15 lead.

It was a competitive match until five minutes to go in the match, with the score tied at 28 apiece, when Slovenia suffered a mini collapse to allow the home team to score three consecutive goals.

Slovenia will have another opportunity to secure the knock-out round on Wednesday, when they face Brazil. It will be pretty much a must-win game, as the reigning world champions Spain await the team in the last round.