Club Africain secured seventh place with a victory over Al-Sadd in the first game of the final day at the 2015 IHF Super Globe. In the second placement round match, Al-Ahly Sports Club defeated Esporte Clube Taubate to finish fifth.
7/8 Placement Match – Club Africain vs Al-Sadd 26:20 (9:8)
Tunisian team Club Africain were the first to score, leading by one goal after five minutes (2:1). A two-minute suspension for Mohamed Hamza Mhadhbi in the ninth minute allowed Al-Sadd to level the score against the five defenders despite the absence of one of their key attackers: Ahmed Abdelhak, who had left the court with a head injury (3:3).
Neither team could find the goal for five minutes after that, until Al-Sadd scored a penalty to take the lead just before midway through the half (3:4), but the Tunisian side answered and the one-for-one game continued.
Club Africain pushed two goals ahead with a breakthrough from Abdelhak Ben Salah (8:6, 23rd minute), but Al-Sadd left wing Faisal Al Kuwari closed the gap to one with five minutes left in the half (9:8). The one-goal difference remained at the break.
Club Africain wasted no time in the second half, beginning with a 6:3 run to lead by four at the 40th minute (15:11). As the match progressed they retained that advantage (18:14, 45th minute). Goalkeeper Idriss Drissi came on for a penalty shot, which he saved to keep Club Africain ahead by five with just over 12 minutes left (19:14).
Al-Sadd right back Mustafa Alkrad scored a perfectly-placed ground shot, taking the score to 23:17 in the 54th minute, but it was too late for the Asian team. When Ben Salah broke through to put the score at 25:20 inside the last two minutes, it was clear the victory and seventh place would belong to the Tunisian side.
5/6 Placement Match – Al-Ahly Sports Club vs Esporte Clube Taubate 28:24 (16:11)
It was a busy first minute – Al-Ahly lost the ball on their first attack and Taubate right wing Lucas Candido ran a fast break only for goalkeeper Mohamed Aly to make a save. Al-Ahly scored in their next attack and Taubate answered within seconds to put the score at 1:1 as the clock showed one minute played.
Ibrahim Elmasry received a two-minute suspension but Aly saved the resulting penalty shot and line player Karim Osman scored to put Al-Ahly two in front just before the fifth minute (4:2). As the clock ticked on the Egyptian side stayed in front, prompting Taubate coach Marcus Olivera to call the first time-out of the game in the ninth minute (7:4).
From there Taubate came back, and when they had closed the gap to one goal just before the midway point in the first period, it was Al-Ahly coach Tarek Elsayed’s turn to call a time-out (8:7).
The score board saw a quiet few minutes with no goals until Al-Ahly’s Mohamed Abouelata scored in the 17th (9:7). Taubate were finally able to find their way past Aly, responding with two wing goals – one from Candido and another from left wing Andre Soares, equalising the score in the 20th minute (9:9).
But Al-Ahly crept ahead again to lead by three with four minutes left in the half (13:10), taking a five-goal advantage into the break courtesy of an on-the-buzzer fast break from Omar Elwakil.
The score difference at half-time proved key – Taubate actually won the second half with a score of 12:13. Though they played a better 30 minutes they could not do enough to decrease Al-Ahly’s advantage, and as the game entered its last quarter the Egyptian team were still four in front (23:19).
Two suspensions for the Brazilian side – to Lucas Barros followed by Guilherme Oliveira – did not help, but they managed to keep the score where it was (23:20, 49th minute) until Ali Mohamed broke through in the 51st (24:20). Mohamed scored another to put his team comfortably in front again (25:20, 24th), and when they were ahead by four with two minutes on the clock (27:23), they could begin to celebrate fifth place.
“We played a good game. We did what the coach asked us to do and we won the game at the end,” said Mohamed Elboghdady after the match. “It’s a good tournament. We haven’t begun our season yet, and it’s a good thing to begin with a hard tournament like this. We played Barcelona, we played Taubate from Brazil – two good teams – and we are happy to be here.”