Germany clinched the last quarter-finals spot at the 2025 IHF Men’s Junior World Championship with a 29:25 win over Egypt, as title favourites Spain were eliminated from contention, despite a 45:33 win over Switzerland.

MAIN ROUND
GROUP IV
Germany vs Egypt 29:25 (13:9)

Reigning champions Germany might not have the same pool of talent or depth as in the previous edition of the IHF Men’s Junior World Championship where they thoroughly outplayed their opponents, but are still a force to be reckoned with, as shown in the two main round matches played in Group IV in Kielce.

First, Germany secured a last-gasp draw against Spain, 35:35, after leading by as many as seven goals. But here, against Egypt, the pressure was really on their shoulders, as a loss would have seen the chances of defending their title rendered to zero, which was a distinct chance, especially as the African champions had previously clinched a win against Spain.

But while Germany did have two players concede early red cards yesterday, in Henri Pabst and Tim Gommel, this time around the first part of the match was fantastic, as a 6:0 run between the seventh and the 15th minutes saw the European side take firm control of the match, 8:3.

The five-goal lead flummoxed Egypt, which had to go back to the drawing board and try to rekindle some attacking fire, when their efficiency was down to 43%. But that fire in the belly caused more turnovers in attack for the African side, which had to dig deep to be back from an eight-goal gap, 12:4.

They did improve their defence – limiting Germany to a single goal scored in the last nine minutes and 53 seconds – but apart from Mohamed Elbattawi, their attack simply did not pick up steam and by half-time, Germany were leading by four goals, 13:9, a lead which could have been erased, as proved by Spain one day before.

The end of the first half formed part of a 6:1 Egypt run, spurred by Elbattawi, who helped his team cut the lead back to only three goals, 15:12, but Germany had a fantastic left wing in David Móré, who converted eight of the nine shots he had, as the European side again pulled ahead, 20:14, after 41 minutes.

In the end, Egypt tried their mightiest, but the sheer number of turnovers – 17 – and lower shooting efficiency did not help, despite the African side having all but two of their outfield players score at least one goal. While the gap lowered to three goals, Egypt could not do more and eventually conceded their maiden loss at Poland 2025, 25:29.

Germany won the group, with five points, one more than Egypt, and will now face Sweden in the quarter-finals, while Egypt are meeting Portugal in the quarter-finals, as the four pairings have now been set, after Germany secured the last quarter-finals berth.

Player of the Match: Frederik Höler (Germany)

Switzerland vs Spain 33:45 (16:23)

Fine margins are what matter in handball and Spain went twice on the wrong side of those fine margins – first after their 29:30 loss against Egypt and then in their draw against Germany, 35:35, in the main round opener in Kielce.

That meant that Spain were dependent on Egypt’s win against Germany in the last match, as well as improving a goal difference which firmly stood against them, with “Los Hispanos” having a -1 goal difference after four matches, while Germany’s +10 looked impossible to beat.

Therefore, Spain knew they needed a double-digits win against Switzerland, to hold their side of the bargain and they started off strong, with a 7:3 lead after only seven minutes. It was a run-and-gun approach from the champions of the 2023 IHF Men’s Youth World Championship, which had four players combine for 27 goals at the end of the match.

Switzerland, which still could have leapfrogged Spain with a win in the final standings of the group, relied once again on Luca Sigrist, their top scorer, which finished the match with seven goals, but their grasp on the match started to get slimmer and slimmer, as they cut the gap to a single goal, 7:8, only for it to balloon again to seven goals, 23:16.

That would mean that Germany needed to lose by at least four goals against Egypt, therefore Spain had to try more, and they opened a nine-goal lead, 33:24, with 18 minutes to go, as their average time for an attack was 26 seconds, having shot 64 times at the goal.

Ten minutes later, Spain still had that eight-goal lead, with Ian Barrufet scoring 11 goals, followed by Djordje Cikusa and Victor Romero, who had nine and seven goals respectively in the match. Eventually, Spain converted their hopes in a double-digit win, 45:33, scoring the last four goals in the match, but still had to wait for the Germany vs Egypt match to see their future.

Player of the Match: Luca Sigrist (Switzerland)