Doha: Even the return of one of the world’s best players, Filip Jicha, to their side didn’t help the Czech Republic’s cause yesterday as Egypt took them down 27-24 at the Ali Bin Hamad Al Attiyah Arena here to creep closer to a knockout-stage berth of the 24th Men’s Handball World Championship.
Initially the presence of Jicha — who was sidelined for two matches due to illness — seemed to lift the Czech team and they dominated the opening seven minutes of the match. But it soon became clear that he hadn’t recovered fully.
Cheered on by a large Egyptian contingent in crowd, the North Africans took a four-goal lead after 14 minutes, which drew a quick reaction from the Czech bench.
The European squad scored three unanswered goals to narrow the gap to 7-6, a clear sign that Jicha and his team-mates weren’t afraid of the vociferous Egyptian support.
However, the Czechs couldn’t find an answer to the outstanding offensive skills of right-back Ahmed Elahmar, who put his team three goals ahead at the end of the first-half (13-10).
The Egyptian bench was forced to call a time-out after a furious second-half start by the Czechs that left the scores level at 13-13.
But the bronze medal team from the last African Championship easily found their rhythm again — thanks to goals by another left-hander, Mohamed Amer — and went ahead 18-15.
With 10 minutes remaining, the Czech defence couldn’t find an answer to their rivals’ aggressive play and Egypt were ahead 23-19.
The North Africans maintained the pressure for the rest of the time to win their second group stage match, while the Europeans slipped to their third-consecutive defeat.
Elahmar top-scored for the Egyptians, netting five goals, while Jicha was the best the Czechs had to offer, scoring four.
A disappointed Jicha blamed missed opportunities for the loss. “We didn’t finish the chances we had to score. This is the key to the loss, which hurt us, since we didn’t win a game so far in this world championship.”
When asked about his condition, he replied: “I am feeling much better now. Since I have been here I have spent all my time in my hotel room lying in bed. I also had high fever and when it went down, I had stomach ache. I lost a lot of weight. I am very weak but also happy I could play today.”
He also lauded Egyptian goalkeeper Karim Handawy. “The goalkeeper of Egypt was brilliant,” Jicha said.
Man-of-the-match Handawy credited a better defensive display for the win.
“We played a much better defence than we did in the two previous games against France and Algeria. Defence is always the key to win games and to go high,” he said while thanking the Egyptian fans for their support. “It has been fantastic. We are all thankful to our fans and we promise to do everything possible to bring them more pride.”
In other group-stage matches yesterday, the Argentinians swept aside Saudi Arabia 32-20 and France took on Iceland in a rematch of the 2008 Beijing Olympics final. There were quite a few players on both teams who had battled for Olympic glory six years ago and the tempo was extremely fast and furious.
The Icelandic team showed tremendous skills and were very efficient with their fast breaks. The back court with Palmarsson, Gudjonsson and Hallgrimsson tore apart the French defence.
However, the French were equal to the challenge. Nikola Karabatic and line-player Sorhaindo led the attack with imagination and cool confidence.
In one of the most exciting games of the tournament so far, no team managed to get the better of the other and the match ended in a 26-26 draw.
THE PENINSULA
