Tunisia aiming to defeat European champions for second-best finish

5-8 Placement Round
Slovenia vs Tunisia
Pavillon Municipal de Deportes de Pontevedra, 15:30 local time

European champions Slovenia faced Tunisia in the opening day of preliminary group A at Spain 2019, beating the North African side 32:25 and ensuring there would not be a repeat of the defeat they experienced at the same stage in the 2017 IHF Men’s Youth World Championship.

Sasa Prapotnik’s side were one of the heavy favourites coming into Spain 2019 and their perfect record of win after win saw that expectation fulfilled, but a fingertip save cost them a semi-final spot thanks to Portugal and now they will be fighting to ensure they finish at least seventh which will be their third-best finish in the competition, after two third-place rankings.

Key player Gregor Ocvirk was the top scorer in the clash between these two earlier in the competition, with seven goals in a best player of the match performance.

In 2017, Tunisia finished seventh at the IHF Men’s Junior World Championship and it will be a tough test for them against Slovenia to get higher than that, but if they do it will be their second-best finish in the competition after a bronze medal in 2011.

A memorable campaign saw them defeat Sweden in the eighth-finals, but against Croatia the following day, the quarter-finals was a bridge too far as they succumbed to the European defence, unable to get through, losing 27:24.

Tunisia can boast the tournament’s third-best scorer – Mohamed Amine Darmoul (50 goals), but Slovenia have the deadly Ocvirk, who is in second spot (59 goals), just two behind Diogo Silva in top spot, with both players having two games each to seal the title of top marksman.

Ocvirk’s goals have contributed to his side being in the top 10 ranking of goals scored (213), with Tunisia near the bottom (183) and their attack are sure to have a hard day ahead of them as Slovenia lie in third place in goals conceded, with just 163 in seven games (23.29 per game).