Press release

Almirante Brown, Argentina, August 25, 2011 - With a fantastic support from the crowd for both sides, Egypt saw off Tunisia in four sets (25-19, 25-22, 25-15, 28-26) to rumble on to its third win in a row and share Pool G lead with Brazil. Both leaders are into the semifinals for places 9-12. Tunisia fought hard before dropping to 0-5 in the World Champs.

Egypt's Islam Abdelkader topped the scores in the African duel with 22 points, followed closely by Tunisia's Ousama Mrika, who came from the bench to achieve 20 kills. Mohamed Masoud from Egypt also performed well, with 18 points.

The match began with Egypt scoring easily to a 6-2 advantage, stronger in counterattack. Mrika entered the court already, but Egypt stayed ahead to 11-6 and extended the lead to 16-10. Tunisia lost its pulse, gave away several points by mistakes and Egypt prevailed 25-19.

Tunisia changed the script and leaped to 5-1, but rapidly the black team overcame them. Long serves in the Tunisian side helped Egypt to reach the second technical time out by 16-14. The Egyptians rested in Abdelkader to keep the lead, but Tunisia struggled and approached to 24-22. However, a bad spike from Tunisia sealed the set in the next point.

The third set showed Tunisia's reaction with great blocking performance (14 stuffs in the whole game) and the first rest arrived in 8-3. Hossameldin Eissawy tried both tiem outs and substitutions, but nothing vanished the energy of the Tunisian Side. Montasar Ben Brahem joined Mrika and both performed well to build a 9 point lead over Egypt (22-13). Ben Brahem himself closed the deal with an amazing spike, by 25-15.

Egypt regained the control of the game but with just a slight advantage (8-5). The gap only lasted to 14-11, and after that Tunisians encouraged themselves and gained the support of part of the crowd. Egypt held a few match balls, but Tunisia tied the score in 24 for a pulsating finish. Egypt achieved the victory in 28-26 and went crazy in the celebration.