HANDBALL – BAHRAIN suffered a tough 22-36 loss to European powerhouses Croatia last night in their opening match of the 2025 IHF World Men’s Handball Championship.
The game was played at the 15,200-capacity Arena Zagreb in the Croatian capital, and it was the first fixture for both sides in Group H of the preliminary round in the 32-nation tournament.
The worlds’ co-hosts were dominant from the start against the Bahrainis, making the most of their height and strength advantage.
They held the nationals to single digits in the first half and gradually extended their advantage throughout the second, en route to securing the big 14-goal victory.
In yesterday’s other divisional fixture, African giants Egypt cruised past Argentina 39-25 to make their winning start to the tournament. The Egyptians led 21-11 at the half and did well to maintain a significant gap after the re-start.
Bahrain will be looking to bounce back from last night’s setback when they take on Egypt tomorrow at 8pm. They then complete this opening phase against Argentina on Sunday, also at 8pm. Both times are Bahrain.
This year’s worlds are being co-hosted by Croatia, Norway, and Denmark.
In last night’s defeat, after Qassim Qambar scored to bring Bahrain level early on at 2-2, the Croatians answered with four unanswered goals and began to pull away. The nationals tried to stay within striking distance and got back to within 8-13, but their opponents replied with back-to-back goals and went on to take a comfortable 17-9 lead into the break.
In the second half, Croatia built their biggest lead of 15 on multiple occasions. Bahrain stayed resilient and fought hard until the end despite the deficit.
The contest was also an opportunity for the kingdom’s young internationals – eight of whom are making their world championships debut at the senior level – to gain valuable experience.
Veteran Ali Eid finished as the Bahrainis’ leading scorer in the contest, posting six goals – a number of which came from the penalty stripe.
Qassim Qambar, Ali Alasheeri, and Mohammed Habib Nasser added three goals apiece while Mohammed Habib Ahmed had two. Mohammed Hameed, Ahmed Redha, Hussain Abdulla, Mujtaba Al Zaimour, and Jassim Khamis each contributed a goal.
Marco Sostaric fired in eight to lead the Croatians, while Filip Glavas added five in the win.
The rest of Aron Kristjansson’s Bahrain roster in this year’s worlds are Mohammed Mirza, Abdulla Abdulkarim, Abdulla Al Zaimour, Ali Redha, and goalkeepers Mohammed Adulhussain and Hesham Ahmed.
There are eight groups of four teams apiece in the preliminaries. At the end of a single round-robin, the top three from each move on to the main round, which will see the 24 advancing sides divided into four groups of six nations each.
The eight bottom squads from the preliminaries will compete for the President’s Cup, which will feature two groups.
Bahrain are participating in world handball’s premier event for the sixth time in tournament history. Following the national team’s first foray in the competition in 2011, they have not missed the biennial tournament since 2017. Their best finish in the worlds so far was 16th in 2023.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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