Both teams had a chance to celebrate a victory in this exciting match, but it ended in a draw, and this result keeps both Bahrain and Tunisia in contention for the main round spots. 

Group H

Bahrain vs Tunisia 27:27 (16:15)

In the pre-tournament friendly matches, Tunisia looked quite impressive, so it was surprising to see them facing many problems early in the match. Bahrain stunned their rivals with aggressive defence and free-flowing attack, and Tunisia's coach Patrick Cazal called for his first time-out already in the fourth minute.

Bahrain led 4:0 by then and increased their lead to 6:0 three minutes later as their goalkeeper Mohamed Ali made a few saves. Only in the eighth minute Tunisia netted for the first time in the match as Anouar Ben Abdallah made the score 1:6.

This long-awaited goal gave the African team more confidence and they improved their attacking efficiency a lot. Right wing Issam Rzig and captain Oussama Boughanmi combined for nine goals in the first half as Tunisia pushed hard to catch up.

However, Bahrain refused to give up, boasting a 76% shot efficiency in the opening 30 minutes. The African side failed to draw level before the break, but cut the deficit to 15:16, which was not bad considering their poor start.

And soon after the restart, Tunisia finally took their first lead, 18:17. However, Bahrain regained the advantage as Mohamed Ali made a few saves and right wing Ahmed Fadhul, who ultimately became the top scorer of the match with 10 goals, showed his firepower in attack.

It was a close match for much of the second half, with both sides often netting from fast breaks. However, Tunisia were slightly dominant – and when Rzig scored his eighth goal to extend their lead to 27:23 with nine minutes to go, it looked like the African team was going to win.

But similar to the beginning of the match, Bahrain was completely superior in the closing stage. Tunisia seemed to run out of energy and failed to score any more goals, and their rivals enjoyed a 4:0 run. At 26:27, Ali Merza had his penalty shot saved, but in the very next attack Mohamed Ali – not the goalkeeper, but his namesake – scored the last goal of the match to draw level with 71 seconds to go.

Overall, it was a fair result. On Sunday, Tunisia will try to add some more points to their tally in the match against Belgium, while Bahrain face a much harder task against defending champions Denmark. 

hummel Player of the Match: Ahmed Fadhul (Bahrain)