Argentina
Argentina will now have to beat Bulgaria in their final pool match to have a chance of a place in the semi-finals.
Argentina started strongly with top scorer Pablo Kukartsev claiming four points as his team took a 9-3 lead in the first set, before Egypt got the score back level at 10-10 with opposite Ahmed Shafik claiming five points. From there Argentina got back into a small lead and held it to take the set 21-18.
In the second set Argentina combined a low error count and good net blocking with their powerful attack and the result was a 12-7 lead at the technical timeout and then a comfortable 21-10 win. Wing spiker Ezequiel Palacios was a more prominent attacker for Argentina in the second set.
Argentina again got ahead in the third set, forcing Egypt into a timeout at 10-6, but they couldn’t find any consistency in their points scoring and turn the set around, as Argentina took it 21-13 for a 3-0 win.
Kukartsev was withdrawn during the third set, and Palacios eventually matched his total of 12 as Argentina’s top scorer, while Ahmed Shafik couldn’t maintain his first-set potency, but still finished as Egypt’s top scorer with 10.
After Thursday’s rest day, it’s the final round of pool matches with Argentina facing Bulgaria in the match which will decide pool A’s second semi-finalist, while Egypt end their tournament against the pool’s other winless team Dominican Republic.
To read more news from this competition click on World Championship U23 M.
