Doha: Former champions Germany finished as Group D leaders after a 36-19 win over Saudi Arabia at Lusail Multipurpose Hall yesterday.
Germany had already qualified for the quarter-finals going into the match, but they still needed a win to be absolutely sure to win the group, while Saudi Arabia were sure to finish last no matter the result of their last game.
Just as expected, Germany got the win they needed without any trouble.
With 68 goals in their first four matches, Saudi Arabia was the lowest scoring team in the tournament before the last match day, but in their final games in the group phase, they actually scored their second highest number of goals in a match in the tournament, reaching 19 goals.
This may partly be due to the fact that the Germans did not even find it necessary to go forward into their usual 5-1 defence, and their coach Dagur Sigurdsson used the opportunity to give match praxis to his substitutes.
This did not make the German game any less efficient, though, and in between the Germans entertained the crowd with spectacular goals.
A more aggressive Saudi defence managed to briefly confuse the Germans, but still Germany could take a comfortable 18:8 lead with them to half time.
Five Saudi Arabian goals in succession early in the second half brought them within eight goals of Germany, but with timeout, Dagur Sigurdsson made sure that they did not get any closer, and at then, the German landed a 17 goal victory.
As it was the day of the German substitutes, it was also three of those – right wing Johannes Sellin, left wing Matthias Musche and line player Erik Schmidt - who made a race for the position as top scorer. At the end, Musche was most successful with 11 goals, while three players scored three each for Saudi Arabia.
Germany will face Egypt in the eighth-final match tomorrow.
In another match of Group D, Denmark defeated against Poland 31-27 to clinch the second spot..
Right wing Hans Lindberg scored six goals for the winning Danes, while right back Andrzej Rojewski scored five for Poland.
In the pre-quarter-final match-ups, Denmark will face Iceland tomorrow at Lusail while Poland take on Sweden in Ali Bin Hamad Al-Attiyah Arena, also tomorrow.
In another Group D match, Argentina defeated Russia, to join Denmark, Poland and Germany as the qualifiers from the group.
The Peninsula
