Egypt through to main round after win over North Macedonia

Host nation Egypt became the first team from group G to secure their spot in the main round. After beating Chile in their opening match, they went on to defeat North Macedonia and have the maximum of four points after two games.

North Macedonia, who replaced Czech Republic as a World Championship participant just two days before the start of the event, are yet to obtain their first points. However, they still have a chance to go through in case they defeat Chile on Monday. 

Egypt vs North Macedonia 38:19 (20:6)

The African side dominated from the very beginning, as Ali Zein and Mohamed Mamdouh scored twice in just as many opening minutes.
However, goals by Filip Kuzmanovski and Kiril Lazarov kept the Balkan side in fighting distance, as the score was 5:3 to Egypt six minutes into the match.

After that, though, North Macedonia could not find the net for nearly ten minutes. Egypt started to fully dominate on the court, as their defence was rock-solid, goalkeeper Karim Hendawy made one save after another, and birthday boy Mohammad Sanad, who turned 30, excelled in attack together with Mamdouh and Hassan Kaddah.

“Congratulations to Egypt, I think we played against future world champions. They outplayed us in every aspect of handball, they were the better team,” said North Macedonia’s coach Danilo Brestovac. 

Five unanswered goals propelled Egypt to a 10:3 lead and forced Brestovac to call for a time-out. His emotional speech had an immediate effect, as Kiril Lazarov and Zarko Pesevski slashed the gap to 6:10.

Yet, their teammate Filip Kuzmanovski received a red card for a challenge on Ali Zein, and it was a blow for the European team, who scored their last goal before the break in the 19th minute.

After that, a string of fast breaks inspired the ‘Pharaohs’ to an even more impressive 10:0 run until the end of the first half, so they went into the dressing room in a perfect mood.

“I am very happy with our win. The team made a great performance, entered the court very focused and played with a lot of intensity. I saw that they really wanted a victory,” said Egypt’s coach Roberto Garcia Parrondo. 

In the second half, North Macedonia’s attack did a better job – between the 31st and 44th minute, they scored as many goals (six) as during the entire first half, and added seven more later on. 

However, Egypt continued to dominate, hitting the 30-goal mark already by the 41st minute. Just like in the previous game against Chile, they somewhat slowed down in the last quarter of the game, but nothing could stop the Pharaohs from cruising to a confident victory. 

hummel Player of the Match: Hassan Kaddah, Egypt