ZAGREB, Croatia — With both teams already qualified through to the main round of the 2025 IHF Men’s World Championship, there were still plenty to play for between the two global powerhouses of Egypt and Croatia.
The final Group H game of the preliminary round in Arena Zagreb got off to a slow start for the co-hosts who could never recover against a well-oiled, slick Egyptian side.
After defeating co-hosts Croatia 28:24, Egypt is beginning to look like serious contenders for a podium place, while Croatia will need to lick their wounds and reset for the main round, taking just two points through instead of four, like their opponents will.
With the replacement of Igor Karacic for Luka Cindric overnight, instead of the injured Domagoj Duvnjak, Dagur Sigurdsson made an additional change to his squad with Karacic joined by Luka Klarica in the squad of 16.
On the other side, Juan Carlos Pastor brought in Abdelrahman Abdou, replacing Belal Masoud and it was his side he took the early initiative, going 4:1 ahead just after the third minute with a controlled performance.
Soon after, the Croatians changed the match ball as Egypt appear to thrive on the noise created inside the sell-out arena aimed against them.
Pastor’s side restricted the home side in finding their rhythm and their feet on court, despite the best attentions of the constantly-on Filip Glavas, imploring the crowd to get up, cheer and make themselves heard after scoring his side’s second goal.
But eventual player of the match, Mohamed Aly, was having none of it – making numerous saves in a variety of ways, including a superb ‘closed-scissor’ save, his legs and feet moving to the size of a postage stamp as he frustrated a slow Croatian attack. By the end of the half he had made eight, before ending the game with 14.
He and his players were assisted by a vibrant and energetic Egypt bench, actively pointing out spare Croatian attacking players.
At 7:4 down, Karacic – wearing the captain’s armband vacated by Duvnjak – entered the court for the first time and he seemed to galvanise the side as they fought back within one after an unlikely scorer in goalkeeper Dominik Kuzmanovic made it (8:7) with just his second-ever national team goal.
With key player Yahia Omar taking a well-earned rest on the 20-minute mark and Egypt leading by just one (9:8), it was the right time for the home side to come back, but try as they might, Aly – and their own mistakes – let them down and Egypt pushed ahead again (11:8).
This prompted a Sigurdsson time out, but Croatia could still not find their flow. Egypt highlighted the depth of quality in their squad as Ali Zein then entered the court, providing further impetus for a heightened Egyptian performance.
Pastor’s own time out (28th minute) came soon after, but he and the whole team will be concerned with the withdrawal of Ahmed Hesham, having played just 15 minutes.
Walking stiffly on his right knee, site of two ACL ruptures, he left the court just before the end of the half and did not return, but would have been happy to see his side three goals up (14:11).
As expected, a renewed, pumped up, aggressive Croatia came out. Sigurdsson enjoyed both the offensive and defensive plays soon after, cheering enthusiastically and saw his side come within one again after 40 minutes (19:18).
Kuzmanovic was replaced by Ivan Pesic in goal who promptly came in and saved a penalty, but when Ivan Martinovic hit the crossbar when he could have levelled the game, the frustration was evident all around.
Try as they could, Croatia could not get back and in a flash, Egypt was three up (21:18), before doubling that even further in the last five minutes.
Thanks to a four-goal victory against the Netherlands, 36:32, Hungary finished top of Group D and will take three points to the main round, while Netherlands start the next competition phase with two points.
Netherlands enjoyed a better start in this important match, looking more focused and preventing turnovers in the opening minutes. Line player Lars Kooij and right wing Robin Nachtegaal were the stars of the start of the match, helping their team to create a 7:4 lead after only nine minutes.
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