France’s Michael Guigou (top) shoots past Spain’s Valero Rivera during their 24th Men’s Handball World Championship semi-final in Doha yesterday. (Reuters)

By Yash Mudgal/Doha


Reigning Olympic and European champions France defeated champions Spain 26-22 in a keenly-fought semi-final at the Lusail Multipurpose Hall yesterday.
France will meet Qatar in the final tomorrow.
Both teams opened the match at high speed, playing the powerful kind of handball they are both known for. It was France who first managed to create a substantial lead, going ahead 10-6 and 12-7 after the first quarter of an hour.
Thierry Omeyer was key in France’s strong performance during the period, as the 38-year-old goalkeeper pulled off some incredible saves.
Spain tried stemming the fluent attacking play by France through a 4-2 defence, but the Spaniards did not get any closer than three for the rest of the first half which France led 18-14.
It took France nearly five and a half minutes to score their first goal in the second half, with Guillaume Joli scoring a penalty, which was also their only goal in the first 10 minutes after the break.
France still held a slight upper hand, as Spain were creeping closer all the time, right up until right wing Valentin Porte decided it all with his goal to make it 25-22 with a little over a minute left.
Joan Canelles and Cristian Ugalde scored five each for Spain, while Cedric Sorhaindo also scored five for France.

DENMARK BEAT SLOVENIA
Denmark defeated Slovenia 36-33 in the match for the fifth to eighth placements at Ali Bin Hamad Al-Attiya Arena.
The powerful Danish squad will play against Croatia, who defeated Germany 28-23, for the fifth spot in the last match of the tournament.
Slovenia will face off with Germany for the seventh and eighth spot.
Slovenian right wing Dragan Gajic showed why he is the strongest candidate to win the title of the top scorer, providing for his team with the goals very early in the match.
The team who finished fourth in the last world championship in Spain was two goals up after 14 minutes (8-6), before right wing Lasse Svan Hansen kick-started a strong period for the Danes.
SG Flensburg’s left-hander hit 100 percent of his shots up until the half-time break (8/8). Svan Hansen was leading the fast-breaks for the Danish squad.
The runners-up from the last two major competitions (Euro 2014 and World Championship 2013), pulled off an impressive 7-0 run in only five minutes which was the last action of the first-half (13-8 on the 20th minute).
Slovenian coach Boris Denic was faced with a possible problem in defence after defensive specialist Matej Gaber was sent off in the 32nd minute. However, the biggest problem was how to stop Lasse Svan Hansen instead of the biggest star of the team – Mikkel Hansen.
Denmark was up by seven in the 40th minute (27-20), but the Slovenians, similar to the quarter-final clash against France, didn’t give up until the last second of the match.
Gajic, Cehte, Zvizej and their team-mates put the pressure on Denmark by eating into their lead in the 51st minute (29-26).
Danish coach Gudmundur Gudmundsson called a time-out in a bid to bring a lackluster period to an end, and it was enough for the win, as the Balkan boys didn’t come closer than three goals to the Danish outfit.
Right wings of both teams were the top scorers as Lasse Svan Hansen scored 13 for the winners, while Gajic ended with 12 goals Slovenia.


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