More interesting matches could be watched on Matchday 2 of the Men's Youth World Championship in Bahrain. Pan-American representatives Argentina provided the biggest of surprise drawing 26:26 with favourites Croatia (12:14) and allowing the equaliser with merely 4 seconds to go. In the second match of this Group B, Iran secured a 31:28 (13:11) win over Algeria. Consequently the CRO:IRI encounter on the last matchday of the preliminaries will be a 'real final' for the qualification to the main round. Against Algeria, Argentina will have every possibility in hand.


A hard-fought but deserved 33:30 (17:13) win over Tunisia helped host Bahrain secure a spot in the main round. After their defeat in front of 1,000 spectators at the Gul Finance Hall, Tunisia failed to hold their chance to qualify to the main round. Denmark for their part  earned a 25:22 victory over Brazil to look forward to tomorrow's decisive match for the top position in Group C against Bahrain.


In Group A's European duel, Poland came off 29:27 (14:10) against Spain. Qatar cruised to a 26:19 (11:11) victory over Morocco. Thus the question which teams to make through to the next phase has been adjourned to the last matchday.


In Group D Egypt redeemed their opening defeat to Sweden, prevailing 33:29 (15:13) against Korea. This fast paced and high-quality match was pure advertising for youth handball. The Swedes met their reputation as favourites securing a 56:19 (29:8) walkover against Australia.