Day two of Group H action at the Arena Zagreb saw African champions Egypt make it two wins from two in the Croatian capital, easing past a Bahrain side who pushed them throughout the 60 minutes.

GROUP H
Bahrain vs Egypt 24:35 (11:16)

Both coaches made one change each to their squads of 16 ahead of this clash with Egypt coach Juan Carlos Pastor brining in debutant centre back Seif Hany for left back Abdelrahman Abdou, while Aron Kristjansson saw his hand forced, as line player Sayed Mahmood Alfalahi came in for the injured Abdulla Alzaimoor.

The early battles were even as Pastor opted to start with goalkeeper Karim Hendawy, who did not feature in their opening win against Argentina.

But after Ahmed Adel put Egypt 3:2 ahead after five minutes his side moved up a gear and pushed the lead to four two minutes later (6:2), thanks to a Yahia Omar fast-break.

Bahrain did their best to keep in touch, but by the 14th minute, thanks to Hendawy – the 36-year-old ending the half with eight saves (42%) – the lead had grown to five (10:5), moving to seven (16:9) just before the break as the Bahrain attack could not find a way through the Egypt defence.

A late burst just before the break brought the difference back to five (16:11), but Egypt kept doing just enough to keep their noses in front, pushing Bahrain into making technical mistakes and causing Kristjansson to rip his accreditation off in frustration at one point.

One of the highlights for Egypt was the debut of Al Ahli’s Seif Hany, part of the Egyptian men’s youth squad who won the 2019 IHF Men’s Youth World Championship in North Macedonia. Having missed the opener against Argentina, he was brought on for the last quarter and within three seconds of stepping on the court, had already scored his first goal.

Pastor had called for his side to be faster in attack after their opener and Hany – and his team – certainly answered that request.

Next up for Bahrain is Argentina on Sunday (19 January) while Egypt take on co-hosts Croatia immediately after.

hummel Player of the Match: Mohsen Ramadan (Egypt)