Africa-Press – Angola. With eyes fixed on the quarter-finals, where all the teams from the first stage travel, the concern with classification in the preliminary group moves the teams into the third and final round of the group stage.
With eyes fixed on the quarter-finals, where all the teams from the first stage travel, the concern with classification in the preliminary group moves the teams into the third and final round of the group stage.
The classification, at this stage, can have an influence on the quarter-finals, where in a crossed regime the last ones of each group will face the first classified, while the second classified measures forces with the third.
To avoid further damage, nobody wants to be ranked last, and those who didn’t achieve any victory in the first two rounds have the last day to try to escape the tail of the table.
In group A, where Interclube’s team dictates the rules, Sporting de Cabinda and Mora do Virei account for the goals conceded and scored, as well as the result of the game between them.
In fact, the staging of the group was decided on yesterday’s matchday, when “lions” from Cabinda and Namibenses faced each other, for matchday 2. Sporting de Cabinda’s victory sent Mora de Virei irrevocably to the last position.
At the top, the Interclube brothers, A and B, defined the first place on Thursday’s journey. Interclube A beat B and took first place.
The victory of 1º de Agosto, by 37-23, over Banca predicted the anticipated leadership of the military in Group B. Grupo Desportivo da Banca, Clube Nacional de Benguela and Desportivo Chicapa enter the last round to define positions.
The semi-final will be played as a “hand”, but the final, according to the decision of the technical meeting, will be played as the best of three games.
Unsurprisingly, the game between the Interclube A and B teams, referring to the second round of group A, ended with a 28-23 victory for the main team, guided by the national coach, José Pereira “Kidó” against strong resistance from the opponent, who ended up broken only in the middle of the second half, the main one was already winning, at halftime, by 16-12.
At stake was the leadership of the preliminary group A, which gives the right to a theoretically less difficult game, in the quarter-finals, against the last classified in group B.
In another match between Luandans, 1º de Agosto had less difficulties to overcome Desportivo da Banca, when at half-time they were already winning by 17-23. Filipe Cruz and pupils made a demonstration that they are in Benguela for big decisions.
Alexandre Machado “Careca”‘s bench was shackled, given the resourcefulness of a more technically advanced handball.
Sporting de Cabinda got their first victory, by 38-25, in the competition, beating Mora do Virei, in the match that opened day two, referring to group A. The leoninos reached the break with a 17-13 advantage. The triumph guarantees third place in group A. Cabinda will play against Banca in the next stage of the competition.
Playing in front of a merciless audience towards the opponent, Nacional de Benguela achieved, yesterday, the first and historic victory in the championship, after the return of Benguela teams to the senior competition, 10 years later. The victim was Desportivo do Chicapa, who they beat by 25-23. The profit was to escape last place and face Interclube B, in the quarter-finals, regardless of today’s results. Tomorrow the race registers the first general break.
Competition without registration of Covid-19 cases
The approximately 150 athletes involved in the 43rd edition of the National Senior Men’s Handball Championship play without any concern of contagion from Covid-19, after being tested on the first day of competition.
In addition to athletes, members of the technical teams, drivers, managers, “organizational staff”, security guards and others were tested, over 300 people. According to Toni Costa, spokesman for the organization, “no positive case was detected”.
The late performance of the tests, associated with the arrival of the teams in the city of Benguela almost at the start of the event, strangled the program of the first day of competition. The first two games, scheduled for the morning, had to be transferred to the night, which meant that the day’s activities ended after 21:00.
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