The Asian side thoroughly displayed some great attacking handball, provided the largest number of goals scored by a single side at North Macedonia 2022 so far and is also boasting the top scorer of the competition so far – Fatemeh Merikhi – who scored 11 goals in the win against Uzbekistan, 47:31.
Between the 15th and the 45th minutes, Iran outscored its opponent 22:11, as it really turned up the heat, while Uzbekistan could only score once between the 34th and the 46th minutes, as goalkeeper Elnaz Yarmohammadtouski finished the match with 20 saves for a 47% saving efficiency for Iran, IHF.info reported.
It surely had something to do with the quality of the opponents, who will likely be in the fight to avoid the last place in the competition, but handball in Iran and especially in the women’s category is growing, with the Asian side making its debut at the senior, junior and youth IHF Women’s World Championship in the past eight months.
Iran is no world beaters and will probably concede a loss against North Macedonia, but if it wins against Senegal, then it could progress to the main round, which would be an amazing feature for them.
This was also the second-largest scoring match in the last four editions of the competition, with the record still held by the match between France and the Republic of Korea in 2018, which provided 84 goals.