Tunisia got their second win in Poland in the IHF Men’s Olympic Qualification Tournament I at the ERGO Arena in Gdansk to book their ticket for Rio 2016 as the home nation hope for the same in the later match against Chile.

FYR Macedonia vs. Tunisia 26:32 (10:17) – ERGO Arena, Gdansk, Poland

Two victories, one ticket – Tunisia added themselves to the Rio 2016 men’s handball competition after beating FYR Macedonia 32:26 in the opening match of day two in Gdansk.

Favourites going into the match due to their depth of experience at international tournaments, Tunisia will be hoping to better their quarter-final finish at London 2012 in Brazil, while the Macedonians will have to wait until Tokyo 2020 to get their first chance of Olympic glory.

Hafedh Zouabi’s side inflicted early damage on their opponents as they restricted Kiril Lazarov – and his team – to just two goals in the first nine minutes, going up 7:2 thanks to FC Barcelona’s Wael Jallouz and best player of the match, right wing Oussama Hosni, but also with a porous Macedonian defence resulting in Issam Tej, the big Tunisian pivot easily winning against Stojanche Stoilov in the battle of the 110kg pivots.

Tunisia were even pulling ahead despite serving two-minute suspensions and found themselves 10:3 up just before the 15-minute mark – despite Macedonian coach Ivica Obrvan sending Goce Georgievski out to man mark Jallouz after just 10 minutes.

The Macedonians were playing a 4-2 and 5-1 open defence at times but Marouen Maggaiz in the Tunisian goal made his mark, standing strong and even saving a 7m penalty from Lazarov.

But the Europeans came back to make it 10:6 and Obrvan tried to strengthen his defence with Borko Ristovski replaced by Nikola Mitrevski in goal, but it had no effect on the poor handling from his court players.

Tunisia stole the ball at will, scoring on the fast-break to make it +8 at 17:9 just before half-time with Lazarov setting up a full-court kempa at the buzzer to make it 17:10.

Half-time would be a welcome break for Obrvan’s side but nothing could inspire his troops to overcome such a deficit and try as they could, they could not turn the momentum in their favour, mainly being behind five goals for most of the second period, although coming close by three at 25:22 with less than 10 minutes remaining following a team time-out.

As the Macedonian players conceded defeat moments before the final buzzer and shook their opponent’s hands, the Tunisian squad celebrated wildly when the final result was confirmed and they went straight to Zouabi and threw him in the air repeatedly in ecstasy.

On this complete performance Tunisia will be more than a match for anyone in Rio, while FYR Macedonia - still in a state of shock, with Coach Obrvan announcing his resignation in the post-match press conference - will look to get their first win in Gdansk against Chile tomorrow (Sunday 10 April).

Best Player of the Match, supported by adidas: Oussama HOSNI – right wing