Bahrain suffer narrow loss to Egypt in friendly

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain’s senior men’s national handball team suffered a narrow 25-26 loss to the counterparts from Egypt last night in an international friendly match played at the Bahrain Handball Association Arena in Um Al Hassam.

The Bahrainis led 14-12 at the half but the African giants fought back in the final 30 minutes to eke out the victory.

Yesterday’s game was the first of two back-to-back warm-ups against the Egyptians in the Kingdom.

The two sides meet once again tonight at the same venue in another 6.30pm friendly.

The tune-ups are part of both teams’ preparations for the 28th International Handball Federation (IHF) Men’s Handball World Championship, which will be held in January next year co-hosted by Poland and Sweden.

The nationals have been training under Icelandic head coach Aron Kristjansson with a 23-player squad, spearheaded by long-time captain Hussain Al Sayyad.

The other players include Mohammed Abdulhussain, Ali Mirza, Ali Eid, Ahmed Al Maqabi, Hassan Al Samaheeji, Mohammed Mirza, Komail Mahfoodh, Jassim Al Salatna, Qassem Qamber, Hassan Shehab, Mohammed Habib Nasser, Abdulla Ali, Hassan Mirza, Belal Basham, Mahmood Hussain, Ahmed Jalal, Hassan Madan, Ali Bassem, Abdulla Al Zaimour, Mohammed Hameed, Hisham Ahmed and Muntadher Ibrahim.

The nationals are in Group H for the tournament’s first round alongside Denmark, Belgium and Tunisia; while Egypt are in Group G with Croatia, the US and Morocco.

Thirty-two nations from all across the globe, representing five confederations, are taking part.

They have been divided into eight groups for the tournament’s preliminary stage.