Portugal starts with big win against Guinea
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Portugal, a potential dark horse at the 2024 IHF Women’s Junior World Championship, threw off the competition with a clear 32:18 win over Guinea, in the second match of the day in the Jane Sandanski Sports Center.
GROUP G
Portugal vs Guinea 32:18 (15:8)
The fourth-placed side last summer at the W19 EHF EURO 2023, Portugal proved their potential and were hoping to create more shockwaves at North Macedonia 2024, being favoured in a group with Montenegro, Uzbekistan and Guinea.
The African side, which features only for the second time at the IHF Women’s Junior World Championship, were Portugal’s first opponents and, for the first four minutes, they managed to stay afloat, as the score was tied, 2-2.
But with the number of turnovers mounting – 16 only in the first half – Guinea did not find any rhythm in attack, hampered by those mistakes and also by a stellar outing from goalkeeper Matilde Rosa between the posts for Portugal, which had a 60% saving efficiency after 19 minutes.
Failing to score for 16 minutes and 36 seconds was Guinea’s undoing in this match, as Portugal jumped to a 9:2 lead after 21 minutes, with a 7:0 unanswered run spurred by centre back Carmen Figueiredo, who scored five goals in the first half.
There was no question about the winner from that moment on, but Guinea started to balance the match, as they got rid of their turnovers from the first half and had extra care in their attacks, cutting the gap to only seven goals, 22:15, after 44 minutes.
However, Portugal deployed a more aggressive defence, blocked several shots, intercepted three passes and launched precise fast breaks, to open a 29:16 lead, after another 7:1 run, which saw Guinea score a single goal in 10 minutes.
In the end, Portugal secured a 32:18 win, the third win in the competition in double digits so far, with the Alkaloid Player of the Match, voted by the fans on the ihf.info website and in the IHF app, Carmen Figueiredo, scoring seven times.
Portugal will face Uzbekistan in the next match, which will be played on Friday, with another win bringing them closer to their objective, a main round spot. On the other hand, Guinea are facing Montenegro next, in another tough clash against an European opponent.