The Germans made it three wins out of three, beating Japan in the first of three Group B matches in the Olympic Palace – A in Tbilisi at the 2017 IHF Men’s Youth World Championship. Algeria squeezed past Chile and Iceland dominated home side Georgia.

Group B Review

Germany vs Japan 34:18 (22:9)
Deutscher Handballbund Handball Team Japan
The Germans kept their perfect record, beating Japan by 16 goals in the early morning game which saw Dimitri Ignatow score 10 goals in the first 20 minutes, before being rested by his coach Jochen Beppler. At that point, the score was already 17:6 to the Germans, but that 11-goal lead was extended to 13 at the break (22:9).
It was the third different continent the Germans faced in three matchdays after beating Chile and Algeria in their two previous game, while for Japan it was their third European side in a row after losing against Iceland and beating hosts Georgia on Wednesday.
Before the game Japan had brought in 17-year-old left wing Seito Yano as a replacement for Chihiro Yamamoto and added Adam Yuki Baig, their 18-year-old left back, to bring their squad up to the permitted 16 players, and Baig looked composed and comfortable on court straight away, but the Germsn were just too strong.
While Ignatow was excellent at one end for the Germans, at the other end, goalkeeper Till Klimpke ended with a 51.9% save rate after stopped 14 out of the 27 strikes aimed his way from the Japanese – it was somewhat fitting that early on, with just over two minutes on the clock, he threw a perfect pass from his goal-line all the way to the edge of the Japanese area straight into the hands of a mid-air pass.
Japan had briefly fought in the second half, but could only bring it back to 10 goals (23:13) down and the Germans found their flow again, killing off an already dead game by going on a 9:2 run to make it 32:15 with just over five minutes left.
“It was a hard game and they are strong opponents,” said Tsutomu Tokoro, Japan head coach. “We need to work in defence as we have matches against Algeria and Chile [coming up] and we have to do our best to win.”
Best Players of the Match: Till KLIMPKE (GER), Rennosuke TOKUDA (JPN)

Chile vs Algeria 32:33 (18:17)
Federacion Chilena De Balonmano
Chile went into this game missing their influential player, Reinaldo Gomez Drago with a muscle problem and with him in the squad maybe they could have ended with both points such was the close nature of this encounter.
Both side had exchanged goals throughout the first half, and even when Algeria went on a 3:0 scoring run at the start of the second half, after the south Americans had started it with just six players following a previous two-minute suspension, Chile copied their African opponents with their own trio of unanswered goals straight after to go 21:20 up (39th minute).
Julio Baumann had missed what had looked like an easy goal to equalise in the 56th minute, and it looked over when Youcef El Houti increased the Algerian lead to two goals (31:29) soon after.
However, Chile came back and with the score equal at 31:31 and a minute of the match remaining, Algeria turned over the ball in attack and Chile went down the other end of the court. It was set to be all over for the Algerians but Chile were maybe too quick, or maybe too nervous and after receiving a pass, Aaron Codina Vivanco mishandled it and it fell into Algerian territory.
They promptly went down the other end and Abdel Malek Fodil scored. 32:31 to Algeria with 41 seconds left. 11 seconds later it was 32:32 as Julio Baumann, a constant threat to Algerian defence slotted home.
However, Algeria took a time out, hit reset and came out fighting for the last 24 seconds of the match. Two defending fouls broke the time up and Abeldjalil Zenadi restarted play on both of them. First, his attempt to start an attack was disrupted. So again, he had the ball to restart, a quick look up on the clock showed a second or two remaining and he promptly got the whistle, turned, and shot clearly through two defenders and the goalkeeper to take both points.
Best Players of the Match: Julio BAUMANN (CHI), Abdel Malek FODIL (ALG)

Iceland vs Georgia 42:25 (24:8)
Georgian National Handball Federation HSÍ - Handknattleikssamband Íslands
Quietly going about their business, and keeping Germany company at the top of Group B, are Bjarni Fritzson’s Iceland who beat Georgia, playing on home soil, with another effective performance.
Their 17-goal win was impressive and follows on from their Japan and Chile victories earlier this week. The first-half was a non-event in terms of a competitive match as Iceland were 21:4 up in the 26th minute, ending an 11-goal unanswered run – Georgia were forced to take their first time-out with just four minutes on the clock.
Georgia had to up their game in the second half and they did ‘losing’ the half 18:17, but it was not enough to come anywhere close to their opponents who had Bjarni Vladimarsson to thanks for a best player performance consisting of 13 goals. The home fans inside played their part, cheering loudly for every strike and save – impressively by Alexander Khandolishvili from Icelandic captain Teitur Einarsson.
Zurab Gogava, the Georgian captain, tried, in partnership with the expressive Erekele Kbilashvili to get their side going, but as their coach Bekari Orjonikidze admitted later, they were already thinking about their clash with Chile on the final matchday in what could prove to be a winner-takes-all clash through to the eighth-finals.
Birgir Steinn Jonsson was shown a direct red card for pulling the arm of Daviti Koriauli, as he prepared to shoot, but with just a few minutes left of the match and the score at 40:22 to Iceland, it had no effect on the game.
Best Players of the Match: Bjarni VLADIMARSSON (ISL), Zurab GOGAVA (GEO)