In all their appearances at the IHF Women’s World Championship historically, both Argentina and Denmark have never won gold – only going as high as silver.

That will change on Sunday (28 June) as the South and Central America (SCAHC) and The World Games champions Argentina will attempt to overturn their 2-1 (29:24, 21:23, SO 9:8) shoot-out loss to Denmark in the preliminary round with one team guaranteed gold in Zagreb.

On their way to the 2026 final, Denmark beat Philippines (2-0) and were awarded a 2-0 win against Benin in the preliminary group stage, in addition to that Argentina victory, with further wins against Brazil (2-0) and Greece (2-1) in the main round, Norway handing them their first loss, beating them 2-1 (22:26, 27:24, SO 8:6) in their final main round game. The Danes then beat Croatia (2-0) in the quarter-final and Brazil (2-0) in the semi-final – seven wins and one loss in their eight games so far.

Argentina had that group loss against Denmark as well as two 2-0 wins against Philippines and Benin in the preliminary group, plus wins against Brazil (2-1), Greece (2-0) and Norway (2-1) in the main round. The South American side beat the Netherlands (2-0) in the quarter-finals and Spain (2-1) in the semi-finals, ending with the same win/loss record.

 

The view from Argentina

“It was the hardest day of the competition, the day of the quarter-finals and the semi-finals, and we are really, really happy because we came through the day very, very well,” said Argentina’s Lucila Balsas to ihf.info after the penultimate day of action for her side at Croatia 2026.

“We feel really confident playing shoot-outs and train a lot on them every day. When we win a set and lose the second we have a lot of confidence to go to the third.”

“We know that is hard to maintain being at the top of the world,” she added about their second, successive final. “We know we need to train so hard to maintain it and are happy that all the effort we put in, all the process, is giving fruits.

“Denmark are very effective in attack, and big on defence, but we are too. We will prepare for the game as we should and give our best. It would be a dream come true for me, for the team [to win gold]. We trained really hard for this, and I think we deserve it.”

“It's only happiness and now we need to rest to play against Denmark,” added coach Leticia Brunati to ihf.info after her side defeated Spain in the semi-finals. “It will be the same as in the first group, so it's going to be tough, but we are going to fight.

“All the Denmark players are really good. Their goalkeeper is one of the best of the world, and the central player Line Larsen is really good.”

 

The view from Denmark

“My girls, the players…wow,” said Denmark coach Martin Holmen to ihf.info after his side secured their final ticket by beating Brazil in the semi-finals. “In the second half, we fight to make some goals, but in the end, we find some importance, and the defence, wow, that was good and we're very happy we are in the final.”

“We cannot be satisfied [getting into the final only],” he added. “We had one goal when we came here: to win the world championship and we have chased that since 2012.”

“For me it's 50% of my play. It's very important,” said Denmark’s goalkeeper Ditte Vind to ihf.info about her style of play against their opposition teams which involves, in her own words, ‘getting into their heads’

“We're a very good group. It's a very classic thing to say, but we're very tightly-knit, and we just catch each other whenever there's something. I know my defence players; they have my back and they catch me, they hug me, and say; "You're really good, let's go, let's go on the next ball’. I know they do the same in the attack. We’ve created a very great bubble together, because it can be very intense.

“It would mean everything,” she added about winning gold. “My coach took a chance on taking only one goalkeeper this year, which is so different from what we're used to. He shared his thoughts about it to the entire group, the entire team and the other players and said; ‘okay, this year I'm thinking that we're going to take one goalkeeper’. He said to me ‘you better get in shape’, so I’m pretty fond of CrossFit and I made a plan.

“The last two months, I have been only focused on beach handball. My friends have had bachelorette parties, baby showers, but I couldn't attend anything. It is a lot of sacrifices.”

 

What the statistics say

Going into the final, both teams had achieved second as their highest rank so far. Argentina, after making their debut in 2014, won silver last time out, while Denmark, who appeared for the first time in 2010, finished second, the same position which they finished in two years later.

After eight games at Croatia 2026, Netherlands lead the points scored with 350, averaging 43.7 per game, but the two finalists are close. Argentina in eighth on 313 points (39.1) and Denmark just above in sixth spot (332/41.5). Actual goals-wise, Denmark are in fourth with 173 (21.7) and Argentina in eighth (163/20.3).

The stats take on a different angle when we look at spinshots, with Argentina and Denmark sitting second and third in the percentage of success, barely separated on 70.7% success in third and Argentina in second (70.8%), Argentina sit second bottom of the attempts table, just above USA, with 96 in total (12 per game).

In-flights are heavily favoured by the South Americans, who sit on 41 attempted (5.1 per game), well-ahead of the Danes in 11th (10/1.2), with the Danish side just sitting above Cook Islands in the least attempts (12). Denmark have attempted the most one-pointers (18/2.2) with Argentina just a few behind in third (15/1.8).

Leading the way for the team in the top goalscorer charts are Argentina captain Gisella Bonomi with 92 points scored from eight games (11.5 per game) comprising of 21 spinshots and 23 in-flights. Bonomi is sixth overall, with Denmark’s Line Larsen just behind, in seventh (85/10.6), shooting home from six metres the most either in open play (21) or penalties.

Larsen is also key for Denmark with assists, the player sitting second in the general charts thanks to 30 in her seven games, while Lucila Balsas sits top of the in-flight assists table with 23 in her seven games (3.29 per game) for Argentina.

Points conceded sees exactly the same stat for both finalists with Denmark and Argentina next to each other with the Danes in sixth again (277 conceded in eight games, 34.6 on average) and Argentina in seventh (277/34.7).

Overall, Line Larsen sits top of the statistical MVP charts formulated by the IHF results partner, Tomasoft.