Inhospitable hosts: Russia lost to Egypt in the opening match of the main round of the World Cup in handball

Key playoff match

Expectations from the performance of the Russian men's team at the World Handball Championship in Egypt were not the most optimistic.

However, she managed to pleasantly surprise the fans.

At the stage of the preliminary group stage, Velimir Petkovic's charges managed to take first place in the quartet with the semifinalist of the European championship Slovenia, strong Belarus and South Korea and break into the main round.

There the team of the Russian Handball Federation was awaited by Egypt, Sweden and North Macedonia.

And the first match of the main group stage was to be played by the Russian team with the hosts of the tournament.

The team of Roberto Garcia Parrondo at the first stage beat Chile (35:29) and North Macedonia (38:19) and lost with a minimum score to four European champions - the Swedes (23:24).

The victory over Egypt allowed the Russians to take a significant step towards reaching the quarterfinals.

Indeed, in order to make it to the playoffs, you need to take the first two places in a group of six teams.

In this case, the points scored at the previous stage are taken into account, with the exception of meetings with opponents who took the last lines.

That is, Petkovich's wards, on the eve of the confrontation with the Africans, had three points in the asset and were in second place, and the Egyptians with two were in third.

The group was headed by Sweden with four points.

Failed first half

The beginning of the match did not portend serious problems for the Russians.

The teams started the game on an equal footing and exchanged effective attacks in the first minutes.

Sergei Mark Kosorotov was especially good in the Russian national team.

The young left welterweight of the Chekhov Bears put one ball after another into the opponents' goal.

At the start of the meeting, he was marked by a series of four accurate shots in a row, as well as an assist to Igor Soroka.

Unfortunately, the partners could not support the impulse of the 21-year-old handball player, and at the end of the first ten minutes, the Egyptians broke away, having distinguished themselves three times in a row - 5: 8.

The role of the leader was once again taken over by 36-year-old Ahmed El-Ahmar, for whom the current World Championship is already the ninth in his career.

On top of that, in the 12th minute, Alexander Ermakov was injured, who managed to return to the court only in the second half of the match.

The hosts of the tournament took advantage of the problems of Petkovic's wards and began to calmly build up their advantage in the score, trying to resolve all questions about the winner as early as possible.

The last third of the first half, the Russian handball players frankly failed.

In the end, Kosorotov and Daniil Shishkarev alternately received two-minute deletions, and in their absence, the partners could never hit someone else's goal.

In addition, the goalkeeper of the hosts Mohammed El-Tayar caught the courage, making several spectacular saves.

Petkovich made a replacement for the goalkeeper, but Stanislav Tretynko, who appeared on the court, failed to perform a miracle.

And the team's main problem was unsuccessful actions in defense.

The Egyptians over and over again easily passed the defensive line and were marked with accurate throws.

They left for the break, leading 15: 8.

Implementation issues

It was almost impossible to win back such a handicap.

But at the start of the second half, the Russians finally hit someone else's goal.

First, Kosorotov, who returned to the game, scored his fifth goal, and then Dmitry Zhitnikov scored.

Alas, it was not possible to reduce the gap to less than five points.

As soon as the Russian team made a couple of successful attacks, the hosts responded in the same way.

They did almost everything that evening.

The most productive player in the Egyptians was Mohammed Mamdu Shebib with seven balls.

El-Ahmar and Mohammed Sanad recorded six each.

Russian fans could only hope for Kosorotov.

And he did everything to get the team back into the game: he converted eight shots out of nine and gave several assists.

Also in the national team, Zhitnikov and Pavel Andreev can be noted, who distinguished themselves four times.

The rest could not boast of composure.

The Russians missed many points.

In some episodes, El-Tayar saved the opponent, but in most cases Petkovic's wards did not manage their chances in the best way.

Thus, during the match the Egyptians missed ten shots, and the Russian handball players - 15. Moreover, they managed to slightly improve the statistics only in the last minutes.

Having achieved an advantage of seven points (17:24), the hosts began to save energy, so the guests managed to close the final gap (23:28) and even win the second 30-minute (15:13).

However, this was hardly a great consolation for the team, because the defeat in the match significantly reduced its chances of reaching the quarterfinals.

And this is despite the gift from the Swedes, who unexpectedly parted ways with the Belarusians.

After the first half, they were four goals behind, but in the second half of the meeting they managed to snatch a draw - 26:26.

Petkovic's team dropped to fourth place in the group, but his position does not look hopeless.

Wins in the two remaining meetings with North Macedonia and Sweden are almost guaranteed to take him to the playoffs.

However, it is possible that the Russians, Swedes and Egyptians will score seven points each.

In this case, you will have to calculate the statistics of the matches of these teams in the tournament with each other.