Portugal defeated Algeria, Algeria to face France in the next round in Egypt 2021

CAIRO, 19 January 2021: The Algerian handball team ended, on Monday in Cairo, the preliminary round matches for the 2021 Handball World Cup in Egypt (January 13-31), with a second loss in  the tournament against Portugal with a score (19-26).

Algeria ensured the qualifying for the main role, which sets a date for the French team.

Paulo Pereira, the Portuguese team’s coach was extremely happy after winning their match against Algeria with a score of 26:19 in the final match of the group stage in the 27th IHF World Handball Championship in Egypt 2021. The game was held at the New Capital Sports Hall.

In the post-match press conference, Pereira said: “Very happy with the result we achieved today in the group stage. We won three matches leading the group”.

He added: “All the players were able to play the 3 group-stage matches except for one player who wasn’t physically ready, but he will be joining in the upcoming matches” .

Further, he continued by saying: “Now, in the main stage, facing Norway will be hard and we will be preparing strongly for it. We proved to everyone that we are able to compete in the world championship”.

While Alexandre Cavalcanti, the Portuguese player said: “Very happy with the result we achieved in the group stage and proceeding to the main one with all points”.

He added: “Now we’re thinking of the upcoming stage and the games we’ll be playing. We are preparing for them with a lot of focus, because they are strong and hard matches and we want to continue winning.

He continued: “The first match will be against Norway. It will be a good and strong game. We are thinking of it as of now and aim to win and reach the highest rank in the championship”.

Alain Portes, the Algeria team’s coach, said: “I am happy with the players’ performance despite the loss from Portugal and their good attitude throughout the game. Our deference was strong and we played in a good way. I wish the Portuguese team good luck in their upcoming match”.

He added: “ We finished the game in a catastrophic way with a 7-goal gap, but our performance was much better than the previous matches, especially the one against Iceland. Our goal is to enhance our performance”.

He concluded: “Now we have to play vigorously and strongly in the main stage and continue developing. Also, we need to play very good as a team. We aim to continue competing”.

Moustapha Hadj Sadok, the Algerian player, added: “We already knew that the match against Portugal will be hard, but we played better than we did against Iceland, where the loss was very bad”.

He concluded: “We are now qualified for the main stage and we will perform better in the upcoming matches. We hope that luck is on our side this time”.

On the other side, the mixed zone reactions were as follows:

Messaoud Berkous, the Algerian leader and man of the match, said: “Today we played better. Our team was really good, especially in the first period. But now we aim to enhance our performance for the main phase”.

Miguel Martins, the Portuguese player, commented: “We won 3 matches, which was our first goal. We performed greatly in the group stage and now we have to prepare for the main one’s strong matches”.

Humberto Gomes, the Portuguese goalkeeper, said: “We played in a good way this round, but we have to continue developing for the strong main stage matches. Portugal will continue fighting till the end of the competition”