After Slovakia was defeated by Argentina earlier, the next Eastern European team was surprised on Monday evening: Romania lost against Algeria after scoring only four goals in the second half. Croatia and Poland secured their third victories.  In the first “clash of the titans” in Group A Spain was the lucky winner against Germany.

Group A:

Spain – Germany 26:24 (13:13)

Spain kept their clear spot after three matches as they took the points in this duel of the former World Champions of 2005 and 2007 against Germany. So Spain can only mathematically miss the Main Round after this intense fight of two top teams. Germany started well, but missed several chances in the middle of the first to increase the distance to more than two goals. In contrast: Spain turned the page, led 11:9, improved in attack – but the Germans equalized again right before the break. In the second half the German team was weakened by red cards after three suspensions against Kaufmann and Preiss and the injury of Sprenger  - but despite the less number of players on their bench Germany extended the lead to 21:18 twelve minutes before the end. In the “crunch time” of the game, Spain played much cleverer and punished the German mistakes by a series of five straight goals and decided the game three minutes before the end.

Group C:

Romania – Algeria 14:15 (10:8)

Abdelmaled Slahdji was the Algerian hero in this historic victory: The goalkeeper, absolutely deserved awarded man of the match, saved the first victory of the Northern Africans in their third encounter with a European team. His saves brought the Romanians to despair after the break. “It was unbelievable, what we did,” Romanian player Aurel Florea said after the match, as it was the third consecutive defeat for them. His team scored only four (!) goals after the break. Again Algeria had started with their famous 3:3 offensive defense – but the Romanians were well prepared on this initially after the analysis of the Algerian matches against Serbia and Croatia. The team of coach Vasile Stinga waited patiently for their chances, so it took only 15 minutes as the lead was already 7:3. Algeria seemed to have still the second half against Croatia in their heads (4:15), as they had problems in attack. Romania took the chance by counter attacks, especially by Ghionea, who scored six times before the break. But as the Algerians showed their fighting spirit the half time result was only 10:8. And the first 22 minutes of the second half were completely imprinted by defense actions and goalkeeper Slahdji – so Algeria stopped the Romanians. Both teams only scored in total seven times until the 13:12.  The high tensioned final stage started. Five minutes before the end Berkous equalized for Algeria, then Rahim brought the lead for the first time to the Algerians. 20 seconds before the end, Algeria caused a technical mistake, Romania took the profit and equalized by Stamate. But then Abderrazak Hamad scored the unexpected winner’s goal by counter attack right with the final whistle.

Australia – Croatia 15:42 (9:19)

No chance for Australia, easy third victory for Croatia: Starting 7:0 and 11:1 Croatia clarified the situation very early against the Aussies, which are still without a point. Later-on all Croatian field players scored – and coach Slavko Goluza could save the powers of his key players for the crucial matches against Serbia and Denmark. Australia expectedly didn’t see any sun against the medal contender, which extended the lead after the break to 30:11 and 34:12. Top scorers in this one-sided match was Zeljko Musa with eight goals.

Photos by Axel Heimken