Tunisia, Brazil seal World Cup last-16 spots

AFP
Updated

Doha (AFP) - Tunisia and Brazil booked their spots in the last-16 of the Handball World Cup on Friday where they will respectively face Spain and Croatia who finished the pool stages with perfect records of five wins in five games.

Despite a poor start to the World Cup, Tunisia finished the group round strongly with a surprise 30-23 win over Iran to reach the knockout stage for the second successive tournament.

Jaleleddine Touati starred for the Africans with seven goals.

World champions Spain maintained their perfect record with a 30-26 win against Slovenia but they were indebted to goalkeeper Gonzalo Perez who made 13 saves in the first period and 17 in all.

Brazil edged Chile 30-22 despite trailing 23-22 until the 51st minute but their place in the last-16 was only assured when Belarus lost 26-22 to hosts Qatar.

Croatia clinched their fifth win of the tournament with a 28-21 win over Balkan rivals Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The game featured a duel of two brothers -- Igor Karacic of Croatia scored six goals while Ivan Karacic of Bosnia was held scoreless.