Ruse, Bulgaria, September 16, 2018 – Egypt achieved a really important first win in Pool B at the 2018 FIVB World Championship! The players coached by Mohamed Moselhy Ibrahim beat China 3-1 (28-26, 26-24, 17-25, 25-21) and ended their longest losing streak at this major volleyball event! The Egyptians lost their last 12 matches in the World Championship history and did not have a win since 3-0 against Iran in 2010.
The battle in the opening set was equal but in the end Hossam Abdalla made the difference with two powerful serves in a row and led Egypt to 28-26. Ahmed Abdelhay was on fire in the first minutes scoring 6 points for the Egyptians.
In the second set the players coached by Mohamed Moselhy Ibrahim made some easy mistakes and China used this fact to take a 4-point advantage (16-12). Led by their captain Ahmed Abdelhay, who continued to be absolutely unstoppable in attack, the Egyptians were one point behind by 19-20. With great efforts in defense and a perfect spike by Ahmed Shafik, Egypt made the result 24-24. A few minutes later, Ahmed Abdelhay did a great job in attack and after an ace by Ahmed Shafik, Egypt won the set by 26-24.
Despite the tough start of the match, China managed to come back after 25-17 in the third set! The players coached by Raul Lozano reduced the unforced errors and did a great job in serve and block. Chuan Jiang was the player who solved the difficult situations for China and before the start of the fourth set he already had 24 points.
China continued to play better in the beginning of the fourth set, but point by point Egypt managed to come back and to won it by 25-21 after another great spike by Ahmed Abdelhay!
The captain Abdelhay led Egypt scorers with 23 points. For China Chuan Jiang made an incredible match and finished with 28.
It is the first lost for China against this opponent at a World Championship. The Asians won all four previous World Championship matches against Egypt, 3-0 in Tijuana in 1974 - 3-0 in Rome in 1978, 3-2 in Saitama in 2006 and 3-1 in Gdansk in 2014.