Africa vs Europe: who can bounce back quickest from opening day defeat? 

After a rest day yesterday, the second round of Group C matches at the 2019 IHF Men’s Junior (U21) World Championship in Spain throws-off with a clash of two disappointed sides.

Bahrain take on Portugal in the opening game of the day with both teams looking to recover from losses on the opening day. Brazil and Croatia then face off after impressing on the opening day with wins. Croatia beat Kosovo, who will now be focussing on a tough task against Hungary this evening as their historic presence at a first-ever world championship continues to provide numerous memories.

GROUP C
Feature match: Bahrain vs Portugal
Pavillon Municipal de Deportes de Pontevedra – 16:00 local time

In the second half of their opening match against Hungary, the Asian bronze medallists Bahrain outscored their opponents 19:17, but it was not enough to overcome the might of the Europeans who had to worry with just a one-goal lead right until the 55th minute (29:28), but in the end they did enough to finish as 34:30 winners, despite the best efforts of Ahmed Fadhul, who scored 10 times for Bahrain.

This refusal to give in and taste of coming close to at least a point should inspire Bahrain against a Portuguese side who failed to live up to expectations against Brazil, losing 35:30, finding themselves down by 10 goals at the break (21:11).

The fourth-placed 2018 Men’s U20 EURO side had led their opponents early on but fell behind with Portuguese coach Nuno Santos’ words ahead of the championship coming true – “we sometimes have a lack of rationality and can be temperamental.” 

11 goals in 30 minutes was clearly not enough and Santos and his team will have worked hard on their rest day to address that, as well as a lowly 20% first-half save rate.

“We did not do well and at half-time, losing by 10, we had to adjust the athletes' ego to rectify some things for the second half,” said Santos to the Portugal Handball Federation website.

“We got back into the game in the second half, and in the last 15 minutes we were better, but the will of our athletes was very strong and that is a good sign for what comes next.

“We want to grow game by game and the goals for this world championship have been established according to the athletes," he continued. "If we take it publicly, we must have an attitude that is appropriate and that dignifies us and Portugal – sometimes it is important that games like these happen so we are aware of where we are.”

Any Portuguese disappointment will be channelled into thoughts only of a victory against their opponents today in what should be an interesting, fast-paced clash as Portugal’s Diogo Silva looks to increase his already-impressive tally of 13 goals.

After historic emotions, Kosovo face tough Hungarian test, winners Brazil and Croatia looking to remain unbeaten 

Coach Fatmir Muhaxheri will do well to bring himself and his young Kosovo side down-to-earth after his captain Jon Muqolli admitted to IHF.info that “maybe we had too many emotions” as they made history against Croatia on Tuesday, becoming the first-ever team from their country to appear at a world championship.

But their six-goal loss against the traditional European powerhouse of Croatia highlighted a quality on court which will cause Hungary and their key players Dominik Mathe – who scored nine against Bahrain - and Zoltan Szita, problems in the late game.

Davor Dominikovic’s Croatia side will be wary of the Brazilian side which defeated Portugal but with a win against Kosovo in their opening game in which all 16 of their players got a large amount of court time and where his team were never in trouble, their preparation has been perfect going into their second match-up at Spain 2019.

Live stream for all matches will be provided on ihf.info. Simply click ‘match details’ for a live score, live stream option and all the match statistics.  

Group C – Pavillon Municipal de Deportes de Pontevedra: Thursday 18 July
All times local

16:00    BRN vs POR
18:00    BRA vs CRO
20:00    KOS vs HUN