The handball team representing Nigeria at the International Handball Federation (IHF) Emerging Nations Championship has lost the placement match against the Great Britain team.
When Was The Match Played?
The Nigerian male under 24 team played on Saturday, 29th April in a fifth placement match at the IHF Championship in Varna, Bulgaria.
More Read
How The Match Went
The Nigerians lost 30-20 to the Great Britain team despite taking the advantage in the first minutes of the match leading 5-1 at some point.
The Brits patiently actualized their tactics of isolating right wing Faruk Yusuf, thereby punishing Nigeria’s unnecessary turnovers to win the first half 14-11 then the West Africans fell like a pack of cards.
At the resumption of the second half, the Europeans continued from how the first half ended usurping the advantage where the Nigerians player Yusuf was isolated and no opportunity for Ibrahim and Obina Ani to shoot from the 9 meters while Great Britain kept true to their superior tactics inspired by Goalkeeper Craig McClelland’s MVP performance which led to him making crucial saves especially six one-on-one saves in the first half and right wing Francisco Pereira shining performance to defeat Nigeria 30-20.
The Highlight of the Match
McClelland, who was voted Player of the Match, made as much as 18 saves and had 50% save ratio while Pereira, through his breathtaking fast breaks had 11 goals in the match.
The Next Game for the Nigerian Team
Nigeria will play Andorra, who have highest goal scorer Unai Ruiz in their team, in a 7th/8th placement on Sunday while Great Britain will face Australia in a 6th placement match on the same day.
