Doha: Olympic and European champions France edged defending champions Spain 26-22 in the close fought semi-final at Lusail to set a clash with Qatar in the final.
The beginning was all attacking handball, and the defences and the goalkeepers were left standing in the high-scoring first phase of the match.
It was France who first managed to create a substantial lead, going ahead 10-6 and 12-7 on the first quarter of an hour.
Spain tried to put at least some kind of a stop to 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 won by four, 18-14. It took France nearly five and a half minutes to score their first goal in the second half, as Guillaume Joli scored a penalty which was also their only goal in the first 10 minutes after the break.However, Spain also had their scoring problems in that phase of the match, and they did not make it any closer that to reducing their deficit to one goal at 19-18.
In a second half the quality of handball suffered when compared with the first 30 minutes, but this lack of quality was made up for by the thrilling spectacle the fans were being treated to.
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, the same as Cedric Sorhaindo scored for France.
THE PENINSULA
Doha: Denmark and Croatia will clash for the fifth spot while Slovenia will face off with Germany for the seventh spot at the 24th Men’s Handball World Championship.
Yesterday at Ali Bin Hamad Al Attiyah Arena, Denmark beat Slovenia 36-33 while Croatia, overcame their quarterfinal loss to Poland, to defeat Germany 28-23 in the placement round matches for positions from five to eight.
Both Denmark and Croatia, also achieved another target with yesterday’s wins– a place at the Olympic qualification tournament.
In the Croatia and Germany match, handball fans had the possibility to see two totally different ten minute intervals in the first half Germans were in domination until minute 11, with a highly motivated Silvio Heinevetter between the posts.
German team captain Uwe Gensheimer and his team-mates opened the second half with two goals to level the result at 13-13 after only 4 minutes played, but that was just the beginning of the Croatian domination.
An amazing evening of the Croatian wingers Manuel Strlek and Ivan Cupic provided a five-goal difference between the two teams after 42 minutes of the clash – 19-14.
In the second match at the same venue, Slovenian right wing Dragan Gajic provided his team with the goals very early in the match. The team which finished fourth in the last World Championship 2013 was two goals up after 14 minutes 8-6, before Lasse Svan Hansen kick started a strong period for the Danes.
Denmark were 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 51st minute 29-26. Danish coach Gudmundur Gudmundsson called a time-out to attempt 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. Lasse Svan Hansen scored 13 for the winners, while Dragan Gajic ended with 12 goals.THE PENINSULA
