Mengon twins inspire Italy to gold

Italy’s perfect run at the Men’s 18 EHF Championship in Georgia ended with a well-deserved gold as they beat Belarus 31:26.

Having beaten Belarus by five in their preliminary round meeting, Italy went into the final as favourites and they began the match with a 4:0 lead, but there was very little to choose between the teams in the first period, which ended 15:13,

Italy’s strength only really began to shine through in final quarter of the match as a four-goal run handed them a 28:21 lead.

The Italians went on to win 31:26, inspired by twins Simone and Marco Mengon, both of whom are on the books at Montpellier, who fired in 16 goals between them.

As well as the gold medal, Italy have also been promoted to both the Men’s 18 and 20 EHF EURO events in 2020.

All-star team

Goalkeeper - Andrea Colleluori (ITA)
Left wing - Samuel Zehnder (SUI)
Left back - Marco Mengon (ITA)
Centre back - Ellias Ellefsen A Skipagotu (FAR)
Line player - Mihail Piljuk (BLR)
Right back - Martin Serafimov (MKD)
Right wing - Nenad Kosteski (MKD)
Top scorer: 65 goals - Giorgi Tskhovrebadze (GEO)
Best defender - Lukas Laube (SUI)
MVP - Mikita Chyzhyk (BLR)

Final ranking

1. Italy
2. Belarus
3. Switzerland
4. FYR Macedonia
5. Faroe Islands
6. Luxembourg
7. Georgia
8. Finland
9. Estonia
10. Greece
11. Lithuania