ONE | system
Oi Levy against Croatia (Vanni Caputo, FIGH)
Israel’s reserve team opened the U21 World Championship qualifying tournament held in Italy with a 36:25 loss to Croatia, which was marked as a favorite and is now in an excellent position to qualify for the tournament to be held in Germany and Greece this summer. The reserve team will meet tomorrow (20:30) in the second game the host Italian team, which defeated the Montenegrin team 23:29.
The Croatians admittedly after a less successful under-20 European Championship, but today they showed the qualities and physicality of the same team that finished second in the European Under-19 Championship in 2021 (in which Israel finished in 14th place and was relegated) against the reserve that won the European Championship in the summer Tier B up to the age of 20.
The national team will play a pair of matches tomorrow and Sunday in Croatia against the teams of North Macedonia and Croatia, in preparation for the continuation of the European Championship qualifiers (the team will meet the Estonian team twice in March, and Iceland and the Czech Republic in April).
The squad chosen by national coach Dragan Jokic for the games includes goalkeepers Dan Teper, Yahav Shamir and Tom Shem Tov. The corner players: Alon Oberman, Nadav Nizari, Daniel Sarfati, Amit Mottula, Chen Liebagut and Guy Gra. Correspondents – Ram Turknitz, Adir Cohen, Daniel Musindi and Lidor Peso. Centers – Yonatan Dayan and Lior Gorman. Pivots – Shanir Natsia and Tomer Bodenheimer.
