Men's Group A

 

Egypt vs Poland 0:2 (11:26, 7:24)

Hosts Poland were expected to be the stronger side and easily confirmed they were by winning the first period by 15 points (11:26) and not leaving Egypt a chance in the second period where they claimed a 17-point win (7:24).

 

“It was the easiest match so far, but we had to work a lot in the defence,” commented Konrad Szczukocki from the Polish side. At the moment, their main concern is to focus on tomorrow’s quarter-finals with Brazil: “It will be hard, playing with the defending team, but I know what to expect from them. I expect a lot of air play as they have some really tall men. But I’m really excited.”

 

Croatia vs Hungary 1:2 (24:20, 23:25, 8:9)

The Hungarians have been waiting for their revenge since 2008. Croatia had beaten them three times in a row, the last time in the 2016 World Championship semi-final, which was decided by shoot-out.

 

Even though Croatia won the first period 24:20, the Hungarians did not lose hope and managed to keep up with the Croatians. The second set was decided by a golden goal, which led to shoot-outs.

 

The shoot-outs were tight, but this time, Hungary were the stronger side. When Patrik Vizes scored the deciding goal and ended the shootout with a score of 8:9, the Hungarians finally got to celebrate a victory over their neighbours. Nagy András was over the moon, when explaining what the win means to the team: “We kept losing with Croatia on every international tournament. And it’s such a great feeling to get the revenge. Their defence was very good, but so was ours. I believe what really decided was who could concentrate more on the match.”

 

Men's Group B

 

Brazil vs Qatar 1:2 (23:22, 16:17, 6:9)

“Match with Brazil will be an early World Championships final. And we will be the winners,” said Qatari specialist Mohamed Hassan yesterday with confidence. At the 2016 World Championship, Qatar lost over Brazil 2:0 in a rainy match. The same weather conditions were waiting for the teams today in Wroclaw. And although it was a long and difficult road, Qatar proved themselves right and won 1:2.

 

In one of the most thrilling and tight matches of the World Games in Wroclaw, Poland it was Brazil, the defending World Games champions from 2013 in Cali, Colombia who scored the first goal. Qatar were stepping at their toes for quite a long time, before they managed to turn the game into their advantage 14:16. As the teams were levelled at the buzzer (22:22), a golden goal had to be made. It was the Brazilians who won the throw-off and last World Games MVP Nailson Amaral scored the first goal to end the period 23:22 in favour of the South Americans.

 

The second period started with Qatar side scoring first. Brazil managed to turn it around and got to a 14:10 lead. After that, Qatar gathered all the power left and levelled the game at 16:16. 15 seconds before the final whistle, the Qatari coach called for a time-out. “Our coach told us, that we must attack. It was our last chance to turn the game around,” said Qatari player Amir Denguir. However, the defence of both teams lead to another decision through a golden goal. This time the Qatar had the advantage and won the second period by 16:17. The shoot-outs were controlled by Qatar and ended 6:9.

 

“Actually it was the hardest match we’ve ever played. Not only the ball and everything else was wet but we’ve been under a lot of pressure. We had to be 100% serious, not miss any chance to score. If you loose 2 or 3 balls, you lose the game. Brazilians played really good, I think both teams gave their best,” commented Denguir after the game.

 

Uruguay vs Australia 0:2 (15:20, 10:18)

Both Australian teams are performing beyond the expectations, proving that beach handball grows in Oceania. Although it was Uruguay scoring the first goal of both periods, Australia were in the lead most of the time and won the first set by 5, the second set by 8 points.

 

“Offensively, Uruguay put much more pressure than the other teams we’ve played with,” said Aussie Christopher Mottin.

 

“It was much tighter than our previous matches and it was quite hard to deal with the speed of Uruguay,” agrees Daniel Fogerty and adds: “It’s all about the team. We’re not just friends, we’re brothers.”

 

In tomorrow’s quarter-finals, Hungary will play against Uruguay. The team of Australia will fight against Croatia, while Poland will compete against Brazil and Qatar face Egypt.