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President's Cup Group II: Three African sides and North Macedonia seek consolation

18 Jan. 2023

President's Cup Group II: Three African sides and North Macedonia seek consolation

While Egypt and Cape Verde progressed to the main round, three other African teams — Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia – finished bottom of their groups and proceeded to the President's Cup, ending up in the same Group II.

Together with North Macedonia, the only European participant of the World Championship who failed to make it to the top 24, they will be looking for consolation wins already on Thursday. 

  • 15:30 CET: Algeria vs North Macedonia

Two years ago, at Egypt 2021, Algeria managed to reach the main round, beating Morocco in a crucial group match and ultimately finishing in 22nd place. But now the team coached by Rabah Gherbi failed to claim a single point at the opening stage, losing against Serbia, Qatar and Egypt in the competitive Group E.

Starting from Qatar 2015, Algeria have lost 15 of their last 16 encounters at the World Championship, with the win mentioned above against Morocco in 2021 being the only exception. However, now the Africans hope to get back to winning ways and upset some of their opponents at the President's Cup.

In the match with North Macedonia, they are hardly the favourites, yet Algeria are definitely not hopeless. After all, their next opponents have also lost all three matches in Group F, and their performance at Poland/Sweden 2023 has been quite disappointing so far.

On Tuesday, North Macedonia played a do-or-die match against Argentina, but lost 26:35 and failed to reach the main round. At the group stage, the Europeans had the second-worst defensive record among all the event participants, conceding 108 goals (36 on average).

"With eight rookies, maybe it is our reality. We must work to create a new generation which will succeed the previous one. Of course I'm not satisfied and we have to work a lot," their coach Kiril Lazarov said.
In their only previous encounter at the World Championship, the Macedonians took a clear 32:19 win at Croatia 2009. However, the difference between the rivals does not look so big now, so a close fight can be expected. 

  • 18:00 CET: Morocco vs Tunisia

It will be the second African derby at the current event, following the Group G match between Egypt and Morocco, which was won 30:19 by "The Pharaohs". The Moroccans lost both other matches in the previous phase, and the 27:28 against the USA in their opening match ultimately played a key role.

In the third group match on Tuesday, Morocco needed to beat Croatia to go through and although the "Atlas Lions" opened an early lead, the Croats showed their power to win 36:24, so the Moroccans had to proceed to the President's Cup. 

Tunisia had shown some good results in the pre-championship friendly matches, but their performance in Group H was quite frustrating. They dropped a point against Bahrain (27:27) before losing to Belgium (29:31), so only a win in the last group match against Denmark could see them through. But while the Africans started bravely to lead 5:2, the reigning world champions then showed their quality to claim a 34:21 victory.

Last year, the two teams met in the third-place match of the 2022 African Men's Championship, and Morocco won 28:24 to earn bronze. And at the World Championship, Tunisia and Morocco faced off twice: the match at Egypt 1999 ended in a 23:23 draw, and four years later, at Portugal 2003, it was Tunisia who celebrated a 28:24 win.