The Lithuanian handball team, which lost again, dropped out of the World Cup selection
On Sunday, the Lithuanian men’s handball team finished in 2023. world cup qualifiers. Lithuanians in Alytus Arena in the return match of the second qualifying round 25:27 (10:13) lost to Israel. Lithuanians needed to win this match by at least 5 goals. Only then would they have extended the selection for the World Cup.
At the beginning of the match, Lithuanians even 8 min. did not score a goal, but eventually played. After a very good section, the hosts were already leading by 2 goals (7: 5) and were getting closer to the main goal – a victory difference of at least 5 goals. Unfortunately, then there were 3 consecutive inaccurate Lithuanian attacks and 4 consecutive Israeli goals. The Lithuanians were 7: 9 behind and had never broken further since then. In the second half, the teams have already scored 6 goals (12:18) and the hopes of the Lithuanians to save were broken. True, ours at least managed to finish the match honorably and reduce the deficit somewhat in the last minutes.
The Lithuanians turned only 25 out of 50 shots (Israel – 27 out of 37) into goals, realized 5 out of 8 7 m penalties (Israel – 3 out of 3) and collected 12 penalty minutes. (Israel – 6).
Lithuania: Aidenas Malašinskas 5 goals, Mindaugas Dumčius 5, Povilas Babarskas 3, Lukas Simėnas 2, Skirmantas Plėta 2, Deividas Virbauskas 2, Tadas Stankevičius 2, Mindaugas Urbonas 1, Benas Petreikis 1, Gytis Šmantauskas 1, Mykolas Lapiniauskas 1.
The ranks of the guests stood out Amielis Sidi (6 goals), Nadavas Nizri (5) and Amitas Stelman (5).
In the first match in Tel Aviv, Lithuanians lost as a result of industrial defeat 24:28 and brought home a four-goal deficit. It should be noted that the trip of Lithuanians to Israel was full of challenges. Through the airline’s fault, the national team will travel to Israel for as long as 24 hours and Tel Aviv for the handball players to last just hours before the match.
Israel has entered the middle of the qualifying round, where they will play with the Hungarians in mid-April. The winners of that pair will be the world champions. Lithuanians still play once in the World Championship – in 1997. took 10th place.
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