Iceland’s Gudjon Valur Sigurdsson (right) celebrates a goal with team-mate Arnor Atlason during their match against Egypt yesterday. Sigurdsson scored 13 goals to help his team win the match 28-26. PICTURE: Othman al-Samaraee

By Yash Mudgal/Doha


Iceland secured third place in the Group C after defeating Egypt 28-25 in their last preliminary round match of the 24th Men’s Handball World Championship yesterday.
Egypt will take on Germany, who defeated Saudi Arabia 36-19 earlier in the day at Lusail Multipurpose Hall to remain unbeaten and topped Group D, in the pre-quarterfinals tomorrow.
The Egyptians, motivated by the stands full of their fans at Ali Bin Hamad Al-Attiya Arena, opened the match in the best possible manner.
Egypt right back Mamdouh Abou Ebaid had a leading role in the first 10 minutes, scoring twice for a 4-1 lead, but the European outfit didn’t give up, as victory was their only option to reach the eighth-finals.
Iceland’s most experienced players, Valur Gudjon Sigurdsson and Alexander Petersson, took the responsibility of the destiny of the 2008 Olympic finalists, together with right back and wing Asgeir Orn Hallgrimsson, who scored his second goal to level at 5-5 after 15 minutes.
That was just the beginning of a furious second part of the first half, in which Iceland presented classy handball with a lot of running and shooting. One of the world’s best left wings of the last decade, Sigurdsson ended the first 30 minutes with eight goals, netting five in a row to put his team five goals up at 14-9 two minutes from the buzzer.
Ten minutes into the second half, the situation was pretty similar, as Iceland was on 22-16, with another player involved in maintaining the huge lead — left back Gunnar Steinn Jonsson, who netted three goals in this period.
However, Egyptians began to use the same recipe as in their previous matches — an aggressive defence with a charismatic Karim Handawy between the posts. Playmaker Eslam Issam was unstoppable for the next 10 minutes, scoring four goals. It was Sigurdsson who showed his class in decisive moments, to put his team three goals up at the end. That was enough to keep the Icelanders in the competition. Sigurdsson was the top-scorer with 13 goals, while Mahmoud Radwan netted five for Egypt.
This result sent Czech Republic and Algeria to the President’s Cup.
Germany had already qualified for the pre-quarters, but they still needed a win to top the group, while Saudi Arabia was sure to finish last irrespective of the result of the game. Just as expected, Germany got the win they needed without any trouble.
With 68 goals in their first four matches, Saudi Arabia was the lowest scoring team in the tournament till yesterday.
Yesterday, they scored 19 goals, their second highest haul in the tournament.
This may partly be due to the fact that the Germans didn’t even find it necessary to go forward into their usual 5-1 defense, and their coach Dagur Sigurdsson used the opportunity to give match practice to his substitutes.
This did not make the German game any less efficient, though, and in between the Germans entertained the crowd with spectacular goals.
A more aggressive Saudi defense managed to briefly confuse the Germans, but still Germany could take a comfortable 18-8 lead into the break.
Five Saudi Arabian goals in succession early in the second half brought them within eight goals of Germany, but with timeout, Dagur Sigurdsson made sure that they did not get any closer before Germany landed a 17-goal victory.
Left wing Matthias Musche scored 11 goals for the winners, while three players scored three each for Saudi Arabia.
“We understand the situation of the Saudi Arabian team, and that it was a difficult day for them. I also realise there is a certain distance between Saudi Arabia and the European teams, and it must have been difficult for them after four matches against such strong opponents. Our players were fresh, and I am happy that we got through the match without injury,” German coach Sigurdsson said.