German goalkeeper Carsten Lichtlein (left) tries to block a shot by Egypt’s Mohamed Hashem (second from right) during their match yesterday. PICTURE: Mamdouh
By Yash Mudgal/Doha
Wild card entrant Germany thrashed Egypt 23-16 to set up a quarter-final clash with hosts Qatar in the 24th Men’s Handball World Championship yesterday.
Poland also marched in to the quarter-finals defeating Sweden 24-20 at Ali Bin Hamad Al Attiya Arena.
One of the strongest teams in the tournament, Germany cruised to the next stage by dominating the Egyptians from start to finish, in front of their supporters.
“It was a good game. Our defence was fantastic today and we played like a team. It was difficult to play against big Egyptian fans, but we are happy with our show. Now we are looking forward to meet Qatar in quarter-finals,” Uwe Gensheimer, who scored six goals for the winners, said.
Towering over their Egyptian counterparts, the Germans steamed ahead taking a 6-1 lead within just seven minutes of action at Lusail Multipurpose Hall. By the interval, the Germans had a six-goal advantage (12-8).
Germany’s starting seven looked almost the same from the last group matches against Saudi Arabia with goal-keeper Carsten Lichtlein once again in superb touch.
Egypt was lacking in fire-power as they failed to cross German’s 5-1 defense led by superb Lichtlein. Egypt took eight minutes to score their first goal in the second half and by that point Germany had already scored five.
The 34-year-old Lichtlein was superb between the posts as he saved three penalty shots and six out of seven shots from six-metre distance. Lichtlein’s saving percentage was 60 in the first 30 minutes and 56 in the second half.
And the points continued to pour in for Germany as they went on to win 23-16.
“It is one of my most memorable performances and I’m quite proud to help my team reach the quarter-finals. Our defence was very aggressive and made my life easy. They hustled the Egyptians into taking quick shots and I managed to come up with more than 50 percent blocks,” Lichtlein said.
“The team that lost to Poland in last June was different from the team playing here. We are happy that we got a chance and we’re now taking advantage of it. Hopefully, we can play at the same level against Qatar and win the match to get into the next level,” said the goalkeeper.
German coach Dagur Sigurdsson was also happy with the win as he said: “Of course, we are very happy with this win. Our goalkeeper and our defence were the keys to the victory, but we also controlled the game through our attack. I think it was a deserving win. Now we are looking forward to play Qatar in the quarter-final.”
Eslam Issa and Ahmed Elahmar hit the net four times each for Egypt.
“Maybe we were a little unlucky this time, but I must admit their goalkeeper was very very good. The fact that we kept Germany to 23 goals shows that our defence was good, I think, but we were unlucky with our shots,” Egypt coach Marwan Ragab said.
Poland outplay Sweden
The Polish team outplayed Sweden in the second-half, promising another great match in their upcoming quarter-final against Croatia.
Fantastic goalkeeping from both the sides and the defensive lines in front of them were much more impressive than the shooting skills of the players in the first 30 minutes of the game.
Only six goals in the first 10 minutes (3-3) was a clear sign of the quality of defence in action. The Polish team had more to offer from the 9-metre line, as 202cm-tall left back Karol Bielecki scored three goals in a row to put his team into a 5- 4 lead for the first time after 16 minutes.
Sweden didn’t have the services of injured right back Kim Andersson, which turned out to be a serious blow for the Scandinavians, who made a lot of mistakes shooting from the back.
The Jurecki brothers — Bartosz and Michal — were the top scorers with five goals each for Poland, while Fredrik Petersen netted the same number of goals for Sweden.
“It was a hard and tough game. We didn’t play well and had a lot of difficulties to score while 6 on 6. We lost this game in our mind,” Sweden coach Staffan Olsson said.
