Al Ahly secured one of their biggest wins at the IHF Men’s Club World Championship, dominating the runners-up of the Machineseeker EHF Champions League, Füchse Berlin, 30:27.

Al Ahly secured a place in the bronze-medal match, where the Egyptian powerhouse face archrivals Zamalek Club for a place on the podium of this edition.

GROUP B
Füchse Berlin (GER) vs Al Ahly (EGY) 27:30 (14:16)

Two years ago, Al Ahly finished third at the IHF Men’s Club World Championship by dishing a fantastic performance in the bronze-medal match against FC Barcelona.

This time around, the only chance for a place on the podium for the Egyptian side, who lost by eight goals against Veszprem in their opener, was to beat Füchse Berlin and set up a heavyweight 100% Egyptian clash against Zamalek Club in the bronze-medal match.

On paper? Difficult, virtually impossible. But after 30 minutes, there were glimmers of hope, as Füchse rested their top star, right back Mathias Gidsel, which took plenty of oomph from their attacking performance.

But there was nothing lost on Al Ahly’s capacity of delivering a strong performance on both sides of the ball, starting with a perfect 5:2 run in the match, which set the tone for the whole half.

It was a well-rounded performance from Al Ahly, which had a strong hand in left back Saif Hany, who scored three goals from three shots, while right wing Omar Khaled also contributed with three goals.

But the top scorer was centre back Ahmed Khairi, who in just 13 minutes scored four goals, after substituting Mohamed Hesham in the playmaking role, constantly breaking through Füchse’s defence.

The German side had their own share of good moments, with a 4:0 run turning the match on its head and helping them open a 6:5 lead, but there were crunch moments when Füchse could have gone two goals ahead, missed and then were punished by Al Ahly.

While Tobias Grondahl and Aymeric Zaepfel combined for nine goals, Füchse still needed more consistency and with Gidsel on the bench in the start of the second half, how was this going to happen?

And from the first looks of it, it was never going to happen. Not only Füchse did not cut the gap, but Ahly used a 4:1 run to start the second half to open a five-goal gap, prompting a team time-out from the German side.

Füchse tried a seven-on-six attack and a 3-3 aggressive defence, but things were not on the up, especially as their goalkeeping department was also left lacking, with only four saves in the first 35 minutes from Lasse Ludwig.

Yet the game was far from over. The Egyptian side started losing their touch in attack and slowly, but surely, Füchse came back. Spurred by Matthias Langhoff and Zaepfel, who had seven goals each in the 53rd minute, the German side was only one goal behind, 25:26.

But from that moment on, Ahly controlled the match to perfection. A pair of saves from Abdelrahman Homayed, two goals from Mohamed Hesham and Füchse’s haphazard play meant that Al Ahly went on to secure the win, 30:27, one of their biggest in their appearances at the IHF Men’s Club World Championship.

The Egyptian side will now feature in the bronze medal match against Zamalek Club on Thursday, with an Egyptian side surely finishing on the podium.

Player of the Match: Mohamed Hesham (Al Ahly)