Thanks to their fighting spirit and greater international experience the Lebanese team from Al-Sadd won the bronze final against El Zamalek from Egypt.

 

Al Sadd (LIB) – El Zamalek (EGY) 28:23 (13:10)

 

Big dances on the field, they waved the Lebanese flag and celebrated arm in arm: Al-Sadd had just won the bronze medal at the 2011 IHF Super Globe after a real clash against El Zamalek from Egypt. Last year both teams had also met in the match for third place but Zamalek had become the bronze medal winner. This year it was a real tough and physical fighting – and Al-Sadd took revenge. Hard defence actions and strong goalkeepers – Jose Manuel Sierra for Al-Sadd and Mohamed Ibrahim for Zamalek – let their marks on the match. Supported by a large number of spectators the Egyptians fought hard to cut the Lebanese predominance, evidenced by the unstoppable back-court axis, recruited from Valladolid, Spain. Both teams fought for every centimetre and despite receiving some 2min suspensions before the break Al-Sadd held the lead. But thanks to Mohamed’s saves Zamalek could equalise to 9:9. Al-Sadd put higher pressure on Zamalek’s defence to increase the margin to three at half-time.

In the second half they secured the 3-goal margin until minute 45 until Al-Sadd punished some Zamalek mistakes, shooting from the nine metre range to rush ahead to 22:17. Shouting and cheering even louder the Zamalek fans tried to push their team forward. But the players missed too many high-class opportunities in attack. Efforts to reduce the margin in the middle of the second half failed. And Al-Sadd was experienced enough to avoid Zamalek’s catch-up. Thanks to Sierra’s several saves and its patience in attack Al-Sadd brought the final decision on minute 54 with the score at 26:21, as Zamalek lacked power and resigned.

Quotes after the match

Tarek Lofti, coach of Zamalek: My players were tired but showed a great fighting spirit. We have to admit that our opponent was not Al-Sadd from Lebanon but Valladolid, the third best team in Spain. So it was hard for us to stand their play. I am satisfied with fourth place considering that we played against three of the world’s best teams that are Ciudad Real, Valladolid and Veszprem represented through Al-Sadd from Qatar.

Belal Awad, player of Zamalek: It was our great objective to win the bronze medal again, but Al-Sadd was too strong for us. I am satisfied with this rank.

Mohamed Rashid, coach of Al-Sadd: First I send congratulations to Zamalek, as they played on a high level not only the past 60 minutes but during the whole Super Globe. Fortunately our team was well prepared thanks to our coach, Juan Carlos Pastor.

Khoder Nahas, player of A-Sadd: Third place means a lot to our club and to handball in Lebanon. We are thankful for the successful support from Valladolid.