PARIS — Egypt’s handball team achieved a thrilling 26-25 victory over Norway, booking their quarter-final ticket at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Norway hoped to extend their three-match winning run, but in a very tense game, it was Egypt who finally snatched two points to secure their ticket at the quarter-final.
The Pharaohs will take on Argentina on Sunday in their pursuit of Olympic handball glory.
Sebastian Barthold and Tobias Grøndahl opened a 2:0 lead for Norway, but the next time one of the rivals created a two-goal advantage only in the 22nd minute, when two successive goals from Sander Sagosen – actually his only ones in the game from seven attempts – helped the Scandinavians to pull ahead at 9:7.
Before that, the match featured a really close fight, as both sides simply traded goals for a long time. For Norway, right back Harald Reinkind scored six of his seven goals in the first half, and a streak of consecutive goals saw his team taking a 12:9 lead with five minutes to go before the break.
But like in the previous matches at Paris 2024, Egypt showed their quality and determination, turning the tide in the closing stage of the first-half.
Ahmed Hesham had a special impact for “The Pharaohs”, helping his team to have a 5:1 run before half-time and establish a one-goal lead.’
Norway needed four and a half minutes after the restart to take their first lead in the second half, 16:15. But some time later, their line player Magnus Gullerud received a direct red card for a harsh foul on Mohab Abdelhak, who had to get a medical treatment and left the court on a stretcher.
Egypt’s goalkeeper Mohamed Aly started to get into the groove once again, and his saves helped “The Pharaohs” to hit back again, 19:17. But very soon the pendulum swung back, as the Africans could not score for seven minutes, Norwegians used a 4:0 run to take a 21:19 lead.
It was a very hard-fought game in which both rivals could have won, yet the Africans had the upper hand in the closing minutes. With almost one minute to play, Seif Elderaa made the score 26:24 before Grøndahl slashed the gap.
Following a timeout, Egypt had their last attack but lost the ball, giving Norway a chance to draw level. However, Simen Lyse’s last-second shot was saved by Aly, who made his seventh save of the day for a 35 per cent save efficiency.
With their second win in four matches, Egypt are through to the quarter-finals, and Norway, who had booked their knockout phase ticket before, still have a chance to finish top of Group B – but to reach that goal, they need to beat Denmark on Sunday, when Egypt face Argentina and can finish second, provided that the reigning world champions beat Norway.
Sweden, meanwhile, complicated matters even more in Group A of the men’s handball competition at the 2024 Olympic Games, with a fantastic comeback to take a 37:28 win over Croatia, tying their opponents on four points in the group standings.
Sweden faced a must-win match against Croatia in the fourth matchday of Group A in the men’s handball competition at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, but the Scandinavian side had the odds stacked against them.
Not only they lost influential centre back Jim Gottfridsson for this match, after he was suspended by the IHF Disciplinary Commission due to particularly reckless, particularly dangerous, premeditated or malicious action in the match against Slovenia, they were also without another centre back, Felix Claar, substituted due to an injury.
That meant that Sweden faced a strong opponent without two of their best players, as well as with only one right wing, Sebastian Karlsson, in the squad, after Daniel Pettersson also left the match against Slovenia with an injury.
And the start played directly into Croatia’s hands, as goalkeeper Dominik Kuzmanovic worked wonders between the posts, having nine saves for a 45% saving efficiency in the first 20 minutes. The right flank was also very efficient, with wing Mario Sostaric and back Ivan Martinovic combining for nine goals in the first half.
It was a collective effort, rather than a starring performance from a single player, with eight players scoring at least two goals, while left back Karl Wallinius led the charge with three goals.
And while Croatia scored only five goals in the last 14 minutes, Sweden used a 12:5 run to take a 18:15 lead at the break, with their opponents still struggling to find answers and trying to regroup.
It went from bad to worse in the start of the second half, when Sweden opened the match with a 3:0 unanswered run, forcing Sigurdsson to take another team time-out, after only two minutes and 43 seconds of the second part, as Croatia’s defence was totally collapsing.
Eventually, the Scandinavian side secured a 37:28 win, with not only the two points being crucial in a potential tie-breaker situation, but also the big goal difference, which can work in Sweden’s favour and, potentially, see Croatia backed in a tough spot, especially after the loss against Slovenia.
Discussion about this post