Tunisia men win four-nation preparation tournament

As part of their preparation for the upcoming 2022 CAHB Men’s African Championship in Morocco (13-23 January 2022), Tunisia hosted a four-team ‘International 4 Nations Tournament’ this past weekend in Hammamet.

Alongside the home nation, fellow Morocco 2022 competitors Cape Verde were present as well as the 2022 Men’s EHF European Championship-bound Montenegro. Switzerland made up the group of nations competing.

In an ultra-competitive competition, each team lost at least once, with Tunisia taking the overall victory with two wins (four points) thanks to their head-to-head victory over Montenegro, who also secured four points.

The tournament was broadcast live on TV Watania 2 (Tunisia games) and streamed via the FTHB Facebook page.

Tunisia coach Sami Saidi featured a mix of Tunisia and Europe-based players, including goalkeepers - Assil Namli (ES Tunis), Youssef Zayen (ES Sahel), Mehdi Harbaoui (Selestat, France), centre backs - Ala Mustapha (Club Africain), Mohamed Amine Darmoul (Minden, Germany), Wael Mzoughi (Al Rayyan, Qatar), left wings - Oussama Boughanmi (ES Tunis), Ghassen Toumi (ES Tunis), Rami Souid (ES Sahel), left backs - Oussama Jaziri (Al Ahly. Egypt), Rami Fekih (Al Wakrah, Qatar), Youssef Maaref (ES Tunis), Hamza Kablouti (Afturelding, Iceland), right backs - Amine Bannour (Dinamo Bucharest, Romania), Achref Margheli (ES Tunis), Noureddine Maoua (ES Sahel), right wings - Issam Rzig (ES Sahel), Mohamed Ali Bhar (Club Africain), Tarek Jallouz (ES Tunis) and line players - Jihed Jaballah (ES Sahel), Ghazi Ben Ghali (ES Sahel), Islem Jebali (AS Hammamet).

Switzerland, led by coach Michael Suter, held a two-day preparation session in Geneva, which included a public training session, before departing to Tunis and gave international debuts to seven players in Tunisia. Travelling with 16 players due to numerous absences, the squad included 10 born in 2000 or later. The seven who represented the Swiss senior side for the first time, in their opening loss against Montenegro, were Gian Attenhofer, Robin Heinis, Lionel Mirdita, Daniel Parkhomenko, Yannick Schwab, Joël Willecke and Manuel Zehnder.

The Switzerland matches against Montenegro and Cape Verde were the first time the teams have ever met, while Switzerland’s 28:22 win over Tunisia on the final day was an emotional occasion for 19-year-old Mehdi Ben Romdhane, with the Swiss back-court player holding dual Swiss and Tunisian citizenship.

Montenegro coach Zoran Roganovic came up against new Cape Verde coach and former Montenegro men’s coach Ljubomir Obradovic in their clash on Sunday, with Roganovic’s side coming from a two-goal half-time deficit (13:15) to overcome the strong Cape Verdeans 30:29. Montenegro had a two-day preparation camp together in Podgorica before travelling to Tunisia.

“We have done everything that was planned as preparation for the European Championship, which awaits us in January,” said Roganovic to RSCG.me after the tournament. “We forced a new system of the game, although we did not do any joint training, we put it all into practice with only a few meetings and based on verbal agreements.

“The average of 30 goals scored in three games in Tunisia is a figure that shows that we were great in attack.”

Obradovic – who was announced as Cape Verde coach in September – called up an entirely European-based squad featuring 20 players from Spain (3 players), Germany (1), Luxembourg (1), Portugal (14) and France (1).

Results

Thursday 4 November
Montenegro vs Switzerland 35:31 (13:17)
Tunisia vs Cape Verde 28:27 (14:12)

Friday 5 November
Switzerland vs Cape Verde 22:24 (10:13)
Tunisia vs Montenegro 30:28 (15:12)

Saturday 6 November
Montenegro vs Cape Verde 30:29 (13:15)
Tunisia vs Switzerland 22:28 (10:9)

Final Ranking

1 Tunisia
2 Montenegro
3 Cape Verde
4 Switzerland

Table

Nation	P	W	D	L	F	A	+/-	Pts
Tunisia	3	2	0	1	80	83	-3	4
Montenegro	3	2	0	1	93	90	+3	4
Cape Verde	3	1	0	2	80	80	0	2
Switzerland	3	1	0	2	81	81	0	2