Nigeria’s Under 18 Men Handball team finished second at the IHF Trophy’s Intercontinental Phase following a 34-30 loss to Kosovo after overtime in the final of the competition in Pristina.
The team went into this match with determination to avenge an earlier defeat against the host in the preliminary stage.
In the Second part of the match, Nigeria went into the match outscoring their host and took a 26-24 lead less than three minutes to the end of the match as Christian Foloki and Mustapha Mohammed combined for 13 goals
The host scored two quick goals to force overtime with the help of Amar Muqolli. After the Overtime of 10 minutes (5 minutes for each half), the host, encouraged by their fans, won the match 34-30 to be crowned champion of the IHF Trophy’s Intercontinental Phase.
USA finished third, with a 36:34 win in the bronze medal match against Uzbekistan
Nigeria’s Mustapha Mohammed was the top scorer of the competition, with 43 goals, followed by two Kosovo players, Amar Muqolli (30 goals) and Granit Kadiri (29 goals).
This is the second time that Nigeria will lose in the final; the first in 2019 against Chinese Taipei.
They also finished third in the 2023 edition as well. If victory would have qualified Nigeria for the IHF Mens Youth World Championship later in the year.
Similarly, In the U-23 category of the 5th IHF Emerging Nations Championship in Varna, Bulgaria, Nigeria lost 31-28 to the USA in the third-place match.
In this third place match, it was pretty much same in the first half with USA taking an early lead and Nigeria somehow managing to hover around, despite their scoring efficiency plummeting throughout the start of the match.
Nigeria secured the best finish for any African side at the IHF Men’s Emerging Nations Championship.
The USA had a better shooting efficiency and converted 83 per cent of their shots, while Nigeria had a 61 per cent shooting efficiency after 30 minutes.
In the second half, Lukas Hansen and Jonas Stromberg combine to score 10 goals while Amar Amitovic and Andrew Donlin – USA’s top scorers in the first four matches – had five goals between them, as USA opened the second half with two consecutive goals to extend their lead.
Nigeria’s Faruk Yusuf did his best to counter the USA, scoring 13 goals and taking his overall tally in the competition to 40 goals, the second best in the competition, but it was too little, too late and nothing that could really impact the outcome of the match as they lost 31-28.
Nigeria finished fourth in this competition as against the previous two 7th place finishes in the past.
Meanwhile, Great Britain defeated host Bulgaria 29-25 to be crowned champion of the 5th IHF Emerging Nations Championship.
Nigeria Suffer Defeat To Kosovo In Handball Final is first published on The Whistler Newspaper
Source: The Whistler
