Mozambique wins World B Roller Hockey

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Mozambique wins World B Roller Hockey

3:46 CAT | 15 Jul 2019

Photo: Noticias

Banished from the world-class roller-skating elite via defeat by Angola, the Mozambique national team won the World B-match on Saturday (July 13) in the modality’s second most important event, now called the Intercontinental Championship in Spain.

The ‘Ngonhamas’ made the full card: six wins in six games, beating Egypt 16-2, England 6-3, Andorra 3-2 in the group stage, and in the quarter-finals beating Australia 23-3, Germany 7-5 and finally Andorra 4-3 in the final.

Without any preparation, the ‘Ngonhamas’ crowned their participation in the world roller-skate hockey championship in the Spanish city of Barcelona with six victories in seven games. They failed only in the play-off for the main World-wide Championship, losing to Angola last Wednesday (July 10) by 4-1.

On Saturday, our national team defended their honour against Andorra, who, unlike in their performance in the group stage, when the Mozambicans beat them 3-1 without difficulty, put up a good fight.

A hard-fought first half in the Arena Sant Cugat Del Valles finished without goals but, in the fifth minute of the second half, Adrià Antequera opened the score for Andorra, a team practically playing at home.

Two minutes later, Mozambique equalised thanks to Pedro Martins, Filipe Vaz being the next player to appear on the scoreboard, in the 17th minute. Andorra, ardent for a place in world hockey, equalised with Gerard Miquel.

Filipe Vaz scored twice in the 26th minute and gave Mozambique a new advantage, and the final win came when Mário Rodrigues scored his most usual goal of the championship. The Mozambican, who plays for Sport Alenquer and Benfica of Portugal, was the highest scorer of the competition, with 22 goals.

But before the stopwatch timed out, Arnau Dilmé made it 3-4 to Andorra, but the Ngonhamas defended their advantage well and won the consolation title. Now, Mozambique’s main objective is to return to the World Cup, where our national team has not participated since 2017.

With this win, the African continent will have two places in the next World Championship (Group A) in San Juan, Argentina, 2021, Mozambique having a chance to qualify via matches with Angola, Egypt and South Africa.

The final classification was as follows: 1st Moçambique, 2nd Andorra, 3rd Switzerland, 4th Germany, 5th England, 6th Brazil, 7th Australia and 8th Egypt.

Source: A Verdade / Noticias