Israel’s reserve team in handball lost a chance to qualify for the under-21 world championship because of last night’s loss to Croatia (36:25), but tonight (Saturday) it showed that it is a quality team with a promising future, when it beat the host of the tournament, Italy, 27:34, which ended the The European Championship Tier A is in 12th place and came with momentum after last night’s impressive victory over Montenegro.
Israel will play tomorrow at 18:15 against Montenegro and if they win, at the same time as Italy’s victory against Croatia, a three-team home will be formed of three teams with 4 21 points, but it is already clear that the great goal ratio of the Croatians is devouring the cards. That is, only A win by a large margin for Italy would prevent Croatia from promotion and could lift the tournament host from the land of the boot.
After an 11:10 deficit at halftime, the team had a huge second half in which they scored 24 goals. After Or Levy and Tom Livov tied the game at 14, Nadav Cohen scored and recorded a record lead – 17:21, but the Italians returned to the game and reduced the score to 21:20. The Israelis continued to be dominant and maintained the advantage with Assaf Sukholitsky, Assaf Sharon and Uri Falah who set 25:29 less than four minutes to the end on the way to 27:34.
Conquer Israel: Or Levi 12 goals, Assaf Sharon 6, Tom Livov 4, Uri Falah and Nadav Cohen 3 goals, Or Meman 2, Assaf Ohion, Shawn Solomon, Roy Liebgot and Asaf Socholitsky 1 goals.
the coach Nissim Falah He concluded: “Yesterday we did not appear in the game against the Croatians, unfortunately. We came prepared, but we didn’t show our ability against a very strong team, which knew how to punish and will probably also qualify. Today, the team showed a lot of character, because it was easy to break down after yesterday. We did an excellent tactical and mental preparation against Italy. I would especially like to praise the younger players on this team, who took the opportunity and bonded wonderfully with the more mature players.
“It shows the potential, and it shows that there is continuity and quality for the next teams. It was really a good game by us, and I admit, we also wanted a little revenge for the fact that they beat us two years ago in the European Championship and demoted us. The goal for us is of course to win tomorrow. We will do what we can. The picture is clear.”
The senior lost in the preparation
The Israeli national team was defeated this evening in a preparatory match 38:37 against North Macedonia as part of the “Croatia Cup 2023” tournament. The team, under the guidance of Dragan Jokic, will meet host Croatia tomorrow, with the two games serving as preparation for the continuation of the European Championship qualifiers and the games against Estonia in March. Yonatan Dayan and Adir Cohen scored 7 goals and Alon Oberman finished with 5.
Earlier this evening, Maccabi Ramat Gan lost in Turkey 27:20 to Izmir in the first of two matches in the Round of 16 of the Women’s European Cup, the return match will be held next Saturday in Ramat Gan and the Israeli team will hope to achieve a victory with the right margin that will be enough for them to complete a particularly impressive qualification to the quarterfinals.