CAIRO, 19 January 2021: Sweden defeated Egypt 24-23 on Monday night at Cairo Stadium Indoor Halls Complex in the last round of Group G.
Egypt's coach Roberto Garcia Parrondo expressed his pride at his team's performance:
"Losing by just one goal is difficult to take for any team," said Parrondo.
"The team is full of young players, and we were close to winning the tie but those youngsters will have gained invaluable experience. Ali Zein wasn't as good as can be in offense, but his defending was really good.
"Ahmed El Ahmar didn't play, he's not as good defensively and I couldn't make any changes in attack when we're defending, instead I need to put on a defender - Mohamed Hesham. This could have cost us a lot more especially with how fast Sweden transition from defence to attack."
Egyptian Pivot Ibrahim El Masry put the reason for the loss down to a lack of focus.
"We lost focus in key moments in the second period. We will close this page, and the rest of the team have to gather themselves and get ready for the next three matches in the main round," said El Masry.
On the other hand, Sweden coach Glenn Solberg was happy with his side keeping their 100% record so far, going into the main round with four points.
"We did extremely well defensively in the second period," said Solberg.
"We managed to beat the Egyptians' superior physical presence, but our next games won't be easy. All the teams are good, but I think Croatia and France are the best so far. We'll take everything step by step."
Sweden keeper Andreas Palicka was satisfied with the result, and the team's progression into the main round.
"We played extremely well as a team," said Palicka.
"We moved from defence to attack swiftly, and we broke fast many times which helped us get the win.
"Egypt declined in the second period in terms of fitness, which we took to our advantage in order to grab the victory."
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