Two Asian and two African sides finished bottom of their groups in the preliminary round, but now will continue in the President's Cup, where each of them has a chance to finish the tournament on a high. 

Angola vs Cameroon 15:00 CET

This year, the two sides have already met in the final match of the 2021 African Women's Championship, which was held in Cameroon, and Angola claimed a comfortable win, 25:15.

In 2017, they also faced each other at the World Championship, and in the 19/20 Placement Match, Angola then also won by 10 goals, 33:23. 

At Spain 2021, both African teams finished fourth in their groups, but while Cameroon lost all three encounters – against RHF, Serbia and Poland –, Angola became the only last-placed team in the championship who claimed one point. 

After two defeats against Montenegro and France, the African champions still harboured some hopes to go through in case of a win against Slovenia, but on Tuesday, the teams shared spoils, 25:25. 

"The most important thing is that the team believed in our chance to go through," Angola's coach Filipe Cruz said.

For 'As Perolas', Spain 2021 is the 16th straight participation in the World Championship, while Cameroon have played at the event only twice before, in 2015 and 2017. And while Angola are seen as favourites on Thursday, Cameroon are determined to fight hard in order to upset their continental rivals. 

Iran vs Uzbekistan 17:30 CET

While Uzbekistan are participating in the World Championship for the second time after 1997, Iran are absolute debutants at this level. Both sides obviously lack experience, and this was one of the factors that did not let them proceed to the main round.

While Iran's goalkeeper Fatemeh Khalili Behrar stood out with her good performance, her team had the least effective attack in the whole preliminary round, scoring just 45 goals (15 on average). In turn, Uzbekistan had the least effective defence, conceding 134 goals (44.7 on average).

On Monday, both sides missed a chance to squeeze through to the main round, losing to their direct rivals by the same margin of six goals. Iran suffered a 25:31 defeat against another Central Asian team, Kazakhstan, while Uzbekistan, despite Madina Khudoykulova's 10 goals, came up short against Puerto Rico, 24:30.

"This World Championship is a big lesson for us, and we will learn from our mistakes. We have a young team, and we will try to improve," said Uzbekistan's head coach Zafar Azimov.

Iran and Uzbekistan have met three times at the Asian Championship, and while Iran won 29:26 in 2008, Uzbekistan claimed a 30:18 victory in 2015 and won again in a much closer battle in 2017, 29:28. 

And while their roads did not cross in the most recent edition of the continental event, Iran finished fourth and Uzbekistan fifth at Jordan 2021, which also seems to promise a close fight in their encounter. 

Photo: RFEBM / J. L. Recio