BAHRAIN went down fighting to Serbia 27-32 last night in their opening classification fixture of the 26th World Men’s Handball Championship, being jointly hosted by Denmark and Germany.
The Bahrainis fought all the way and at one stage were 25-all with less than 10 minutes remaining. But the Serbians in the end just proved too strong.
Back-to-back goals from Stefan Vujic and Bogdan Radivojevic gave Serbia a 27-25 lead and although Bahrain continued to fight until the final whistle, their opponents did well to pull away for a five-goal victory.
Earlier, a goal from Jassim Al Salatna levelled the scores 10-all and then Ahmed Jalal gave Bahrain an 11-10 advantage.
Goals from skipper Hussain Al Sayyad, Komail Mahfoodh and Mahdi Saad helped the Bahrainis take a 17-15 lead heading into the break, with goalkeeper Mohammed Abdulhussain also playing a key role with several fine saves.
After the re-start, however, the Serbians levelled quickly 19-all and it remained deadlocked all the way until 25-25, setting the stage for Serbia’s decisive surge.
Finished
Al Sayyad finished as Bahrain’s top scorer with nine goals while Al Salatna had six. Ali Merza contributed three with Jalal, Mahfoodh, Saad and Mohammed Habib contributing two each. Hasan Madan completed the tally with a lone goal.
Vanja Ilic top scored for Serbia with nine goals.
The result ended Bahrain’s hopes of finishing as high as 17th in the competition. They will now play for 19th place, either against Austria or Argentina today at 8pm, Bahrain time.
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