The African champions open their France 2017 campaign with a 22:20 win against Qatar.

Fans in AccorHotels Arena, many of which were supporting the African champions, were treated to an exciting opening for Group D as Egypt defeated 2015 World Championships runners-up Qatar. Egypt made a statement with their perfect performance, and demonstrated they are one of the contenders to top the group at the end of the preliminary round.

Egypt were led by a spectacular game from goalkeeper Karim Hendawy, who saved at 48 per cent, while the responsibility in attack was spread between a rotating back court.

GROUP D: Qatar vs Egypt 20:22 (8:11)

It took Egypt just under 15 minutes to claim the momentum, as the opening quarter of the match saw a one-for-one contest. 2015 World Championship All-star left back Rafael Capote earned Qatar the edge at 5:4 just past the 10-minute mark, but after his goal the Asian champions were not able to find the goal until the clock showed 24 minutes.

Both teams played active defensive systems with Egypt’s 5-1 forcing Qatar’s back court to work hard for their goals, while the African team’s smooth attack found trouble closer to the line but shot well to keep Danijel Saric on an uncharacteristic eight saves at 28 per cent.

Egypt took the lead after a saved penalty in the 13th and Ahmed El-Ahmar scored his third of eight to put the score at 6:5 – and the rest of the match belonged to them. Egypt coach Marwan Ragab called the first time-out of the match with his team still 6:5 in front midway through the half, but neither team could find the goal until after another time-out called by Qatar coach Valero Rivera following seven scoreless minutes.

Abdulrazzaq Murad broke a drought for Qatar in the 24th minute, but Egypt maintained their two-goal advantage and increased it further to 9:6 just before the half entered the last five minutes.

The half-time score of 11:8 was already an ominous sign for Qatar, and it seemed even mastermind coach Valero Rivera could not find the right tactics to beat their opponents as Egypt wasted little time moving further ahead in the second period. When a time-out was called with 12 minutes remaining in the match, the African champions held a commanding 17:13 advantage as keeper Handawy continued to shine.

The two points were well decided by that point, and all Egypt had to do was hold on to the final whistle, after which El-Ahmar was named Player of the Match.

Post-match reactions:

Mohamed Elbassiouny (EGY): “This is our first game in this World Championship, and it’s a good start. We led very early in the game, and we ended it like we wanted to. Our defence made the difference. We’re taking this tournament step by step. Today was the first step, and now we’re looking towards the second step tomorrow.”

Bertrand Roine (QAT): We didn’t play to the best of our abilities. We always got the ball when standing. We knew that we were going to play a very aggressive team, with a high defensive line, so we had to take some distance and create some depth. But we failed. The key would have been to run more without the ball and to win more duels.

Photos: Julien CROSNIER