Germany vs Egypt: the Egyptians are ready to fight for medals

At the Tokyo Games the Egyptian national handball team has every chance to make it to the semifinals for the first time in their history. To do this, they need to beat the Germans, which the Africans had previously failed to do. Should we expect a historic victory in the upcoming match?

The German national team won bronze at the last Olympics, and many players from the same lineup came to Tokyo. Andreas Wolff, Kai Hefner, Steffen Weinhold, Uwe Gensheimer, Hendrik Pekeler, Paul Drux and Julius Ken are part of the German team for the Olympic Games but, two bronze medalists were not included in the roster due to injuries. Without Patrick Winchek and Fabian Wiede, it is hard to expect the same success the team had at Rio 2016, although the 3rd place in the group stage still inspires optimism. Timo Kastening and Steffen Weinhold took over as the offensive leaders, and both are now in the top 10 top scorers in the Olympics with 24 goals per game each. But there are questions about the goalkeeper's position. Andreas Wolff is not in the best shape, but his replacement, Johannes Bitter, fits perfectly for the role. In terms of the percentage of preventing goals, Bitter is the best among all the goalkeepers in the tournament (31 deflected shots - 81, 35% of accuracy).

In 5 games of the Olympiad, Alfred Gislason's wards took the upper hand three times. The German national team was obliged to beat the Argentines and Brazilians, but the victory over Norway with a difference of 5 goals made a difference. In the last round, the Germans met with the Brazilian team and were stronger with a score of 29-25. After the first half, the team was leading with a difference of 4 points. This time, the coach ordered Johannes Bitter to spent more playing time at the goal than usual, and this worked outright: he made 12 saves in this match. The backline did an excellent job in the attack: 10 out of 16 shots from 9 meters were successful. Jüri Knorr and Steffen Weinhold each scored 6 goals from the field, becoming the protagonists of the meeting.

The Egyptian national team came close to the giants of world handball, and this was greatly achieved by the head coach of the team, Roberto Parrondo. At the clubs tournament, the Spanish specialist has already won the Champions League in his debut season, and there can be no doubt about his skill. The African squad has started playing handball in a whole new level, and local players are gradually moving to strong European clubs. At the Tokyo Olympics, four Egyptian team players are in the top 20 scorers: Mohammad Sanad, Ahmed Elahmar, Yahia Omar and Ahmed Mohamed have scored 85 goals in total - more than half of the team's goals in the tournament. It is also worth mentionening the performance of the goalkeeper Mohamed El Tayar: he saves 33% of the shots on goal, and he is in the 3rd position among all goalkeepers.

At the group stage, Roberto Parrondo's charges lost only to the Danes, defeating the national teams of Portugal, Japan, Sweden and Bahrain. The Egyptians were leading with a difference of 8 goals in the match with Bahrain in the first time, and after the break they did not leave the opponent even a chance: they beat them 30-20. Mohamed El Tayar saved 15 out of 35 shots (43%), becoming one of the main protagonists of the meeting. Long-distance attempts to score were mostly unsuccessful, but in quick breaks the team scored 7 goals. Ahmed Elahmar became the most productive member of the Egyptian team by scoring 5 goals.

In many statistics, the German team is slightly ahead of the Egyptians, but if the Egyptian team performs at their maximum capabilities, this difference will be leveled. The guests won the last 2 matches thanks to the tenacious defense and good play of the goalkeeper, and at the same time, the African team made much fewer losses than the Germans. Alfred Gislason's charges have problems in attack, and it is quite possible that the shortage of Wiede and Winchek is taking its toll. Their last match turned out to be tense, and the Egyptian national team could not score to draw at least. I propose to bet on the following outcomes:

• X for 7.90;
• Egypt to win for 2.45;
• Total over 53.5 for 1.909.