For the neutral fan watching this clash it was edge-of-your seat stuff, but for the players, it was a nervous, tense and sometime emotional match which saw yet another comeback from Serbia just fall short as Egypt took the victory in the last seconds to move into the quarter-finals.

EIGHTH-FINAL
Egypt vs Serbia 30:29 (15:14)
As Travesas Sport Hall, Vigo

The end of the first half saw these two sides go into the break nearly equal, but, for Serbia it was a question of what if as they kept being undone by their two-minute suspensions, ending the first period with five, including one for Jovica Nikolic, sitting on the bench.

Goalkeeper Todor Jandric had made a sterling effort too to put his side in the driving seat with eight saves from 23 Egyptian attempts in the opening half for his Serbia side who had started the game with just 15 players with Stefan Trkulja missing due to illness.

Serbia coach Boris Rojevic took his first time out with Egypt 7:5 ahead (12:37 on the clock) but instead of an instant response it was followed by two turnovers from his side as they failed to capitalise on the motivational pause.

But after the second turnover Serbia received a small let-off as Egypt’s goalkeeper Omar Sami Dahroug was too aggressive on his full-court shot into an open goal as the ball sailed over the crossbar (8:5).

Egypt coach Tarek Sayed Elsayed then started employing Abdelaziz Ehab Hassan as a man-marker on the important Marko Milosavljevic, pushing the Serbian back to the halfway line at times as Egypt sought to pressurise the Serbian attack in mistakes which they made, notably at 9:7 down when Nikola Ivanovic missed a seven-metre and Egypt went down the other end to score as Serbian heads dropped.

Hassan Walid Kaddah mesmerised the Serbian attack, skipping along the Serbian line from left to right before switching quickly and shooting in to the net to cue large celebrations from the Egyptian bench (10:7 – 17th minute) and he then further capitalised on a Serbian miss to pick up the ball in his own half before dribbling to the Serbian line and scoring again with ease (11:8).

A frantic game was then paused with 10 minutes remaining for the court to be cleaned and it gave everyone a chance inside the As Travesas Sport Hall in Vigo to take a breather, but more dramatic moments came as Jandric dived, football-style, to make a save after a long-range attempt by Ahmed Hesham Mohamed into an unguarded net. 

It appeared that the second half would see Egypt stay in front by just enough, and it appeared that Serbia had blown their chances as following a confrontation with officials, Rojevic was shown a direct red card and sent to the stands (43:44 on the clock).

However, during the pause in play the Serbia players regrouped and self-motivated themselves for what would prove to be a last quarter full of nerves, starting with Branko Tomic literally grabbing the ball out his teammates’ hand, following an Egyptian mishandle on their line, to make put his side three goals behind (25:22) going into a final 12-minute period where Serbia outscored their opponents 8:5 and went a late 3:0 run which saw Boris Radiovjevic and Ivanovic, twice, score to bring it all-square at 29:29.

It was also during this time that Egypt’s coaching staff were shown a yellow card as the game reached a crescendo of action with Serbia’s equalising goal coming with just under 30 seconds left and their whole squad, now led by assistant coach Aleksandar Tunguz, celebrating wildly, before Tunguz immediately calmed them down after an Egyptian time out straight after the equalising strike.

Kaddah was to have the final say though as, with his team back to full strength following the end of a two-minute before the time out, the tall left-hander received the ball mid-court, sidestepped Marko Vignjevic’s attention and struck home from distance barely giving Serbia time to even pick the ball out of the net as they sunk, dejected to the court, knowing they had come close, but not close enough.

“The match was in the top category with nothing decided until the last seconds,” said Egypt’s Khaled Walid Ibrahim to SpainHandball19.com. “We are very happy with the final result as we had thoroughly prepared this match.”

Aleksandar Djordjevic, Director of the Serbian team at Spain 2019 was realistic in defeat. “The game was spectacular for the fans,” he said. “I am very proud of my players and my team; I have to congratulate Egypt, but we have made many mistakes and that has cost us being in the quarter-finals.”

Best Player of the Match: Mohsen Ramadan Mahmoud (EGY)