Spain’s Joan Canellas (centre) scored the winner with two seconds left on the clock as the defending champions beat Denmark in the quarterfinals yesterday. PICTURE: Mamdouh
By Yash Mudgal/Doha
Defending champions Spain and Olympic champions France entered the semifinals of the 24th Men’s Handball World Championship with contrasting victories yesterday. Spain overcame twice runners-up Denmark in a 25-24 thriller, while France easily defeated Slovenia 32-23. The two teams will now meet in the semifinals tomorrow.
At Lusail Multipurpose Hall, a goal from Spanish playmaker Joan Canellas with two seconds left on the clock decided the match which had been equal throughout the 60 minutes.
Both teams found the net pretty easily at the beginning of the match which made it look like the teams were almost taking turns scoring.
The Danes found their feet with a very flexible and movable 6-0 defense, while Spain had their trouble with Danish left wing Anders Eggert, who scored four times within the first 11 minutes.
After 13 minutes, Denmark were leading 6-4, but it only took Spain one minute to pull it even. Canellas gave them their first lead at 9-8 after 20 minutes of the play.
That lead was increased to 10-8 shortly afterwards, but the Danes soon came back at the Spanish again and held them to an 11-11 draw at half-time.
At the start of the second half, Denmark went ahead by two goals again, and they even had the chance to increase their lead to three for the first time in the match, but instead Spain came back again and levelled at 18-18. The Northern Europeans went ahead for the first time in the second half at 19-18, a lead which was soon increased to two goals.
Denmark threw on to go ahead 23-22, but with a minute left Spain was back in the lead at 24-23. Mads Mensah Larsen equalised for Denmark with half a minute left, but Canella’s goal decided the matter in favour of Spain leaving the Danes disappointed.
Left winger Valero Rivera scored 10 goals for Spain, while Mikkel Hansen and Eggert scored six each for Denmark.
FRANCE BEAT SLOVENIA
At Ali Bin Hamad Al Attiya Arena, Olympic and European champions France kept their hope alive for a hat-trick of titles defeating last year’s semifinalist Slovenia.
France went into the match as favourites and proved the tag right from the word go. Their rampant defensive line, consisting of the Karabatic brothers, Sorhaindo and other high class players, was simply unbeatable.
Slovenian shooters lacked penetration against the outstanding French goalie Thierry Omeyer, who had made six saves after only 10 minutes of the match to help his team to an amazing start (6-1).
The Slovenians, fourth at the 2013 World Championship in Spain, had to wait three more minutes to score their second goal in the match. Jure Dolenec and Dragan Gajic gave some brief hope to the Slovenian fans narrowing the gap at 8-4, but Nikola Karabatic showed why he is known as one of the world’s best players in the next few minutes, taking his team to a seven-goal lead after 18 minutes (11-4).
Slovenian goalie Gorazd Skof was a key factor in the last 15 minutes of the match in which the Balkan boys regained the power. His attractive saves gave his teammates a boost of confidence.
The Slovenians managed to decrease the Spanish advantage to four at 24-20 with 11 minutes to go, however, that only turned out to be a beginning of a furious French finish.
France’s Daniel Narcisse and Slovenia’s Luka Zvizej scored six goals each for their sides.
