Saturday (9 August) brings with it the final round of preliminary group games at The World Games Chengdu 2025.

All 16 teams will move into the quarter-finals on Sunday (10 August) with the final games in the group stage deciding who will play who in the unforgiving knockout rounds.

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Argentina and Germany women look to end preliminary group in strongest possible way

The top two teams at the last IHF Women’s Beach Handball World Championship – Germany (gold) and Argentina (silver) – go into the final day of preliminary group action knowing wins in their third games will seal top spots in their respective groups and, potentially, the easiest team in the quarter-finals – on paper at least.

First up, the South Americans face debutants China, a team they beat last year in Pingtan in the main round. Armed with the Chengdu 2025 top-scorer Gisella Bonomi (33 points) they should beat the Asian side, who have one win and one draw to their name so far, but with the best goalkeeper in the tournament so far in terms of number of saves made (Fan Wenna 17 from 49 shots/35%).

It could be a fascinating clash – especially with the strong support likely from both sets of fans as the South Americans have a large number following them in Asia. “Our crowd is the best in the world,” said Zoe Turnes to ihf.info. “They are really passionate and they feel the passion for beach handball which we do. It’s really nice to have that support and it really gives us that fire inside.”

Germany are the tournament top-scorers overall with 88 points and they face fellow Europeans Denmark, a team they know well and a team which they beat in the semi-finals of China 2024, 2-1, after losing to them 2-0 in the main round.

“It will be a hard game because Denmark are a good team. We take all our power to this game,” said Germany’s Belen Gettwart to ihf.info, who won gold with the side at The World Games Birmingham 2022.

“It is really nice to be back. I really love The World Games and really love the Athletes’ Village. After the games here in China, when I see my phone, I see a lot of messages and I love that. I hope that will be the same after the next games.”

The other games see Vietnam and Croatia both looking to get their first wins as they face Spain and Portugal respectively – the Portuguese with the meanest defence so far, conceding just 51 points in their two games. Spain beat Vietnam 2-0 in China 12 months ago, while Portugal defeated Croatia 2-1 in the main round at the same event.

Perfect preliminary stage the goal for Brazil and Spain men

With two wins from two so far, Spain and Brazil lead the way in the men’s competition at Chengdu 2025, somewhat surprising considering 12 months ago the teams finished fifth and sixth respectively at the 2024 IHF Men’s Beach Handball World Championship held on Pingtan Island in China.

Brazil face the biggest threat to their perfect record so far as they take on newly-crowned European champions Germany in the first pair of men’s games on day three. Germany will be reeling from their loss on day two to Portugal and looking to get back on track against the South Americans, who can boast the best defensive record so far, conceding just 72 points in their pair of games.

“It’s the big match of the group to decide who is going to be the first place in the group and who will have the ‘easiest’ match with the fourth-placed team in the other group. It is never easy, but everyone wants to get the smallest road to the final,” said Brazil’s new senior team player Rai Goncalves to ihf.info, before going on to explain how he was selected for the team.

“It’s a great pleasure to talk about the coach, Antonio Guerre Peixe. He is the greatest,” said the player who turned 20 years old in March. “He saw me play at the 2022 IHF Men’s Youth Beach Handball World Championship when he was with Iran, but he is a Brazilian and has a long story with them.

“He returned back to coach the national team and gave me an opportunity at a four nations tournament with Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina. There, I showed him that I can be part of this group and happily he brought me to this tournament. I am really glad that I am with the guys.”

The other game in the first session will see The World Games title-holders Croatia face Portugal. The Croatians find themselves in unfamiliar territory – without points after two games. They will be desperate not to end the stage without a win while Portugal, with Ricardo Castro recording the most saves so far – 11 – will be hoping to add another win.

“We are growing with the competition,” said Castro to ihf.info. “We want to continue to win, it’s match-by-match and we want to win to have the best placement for the quarter-finals.”

As recently as June was the last time Spain played Tunisia, defeating them 2-0 (22:16, 21:17) on stage one of the BHGT held in North Africa. The two teams do battle once again, this time at Chengdu 2025, Spain knowing a win will cement their top-spot finish in the group.

The final group of the game sees the best attacking force of the men’s competition – Denmark – take on debutants China in their first-ever meeting.

Denmark boast a number of top offensive statistics – the most points scored overall (99), the two top-scorers, in Christian Nielsen (36 points) and Martin Andersen (34), plus the best assists - Frederick Jensen’s 19 ahead of Bruno Oliveira’s 18.

“I am super-excited. We have never played against China before, so it’s always fun to play against teams we haven’t before, playing the host nation and seeing the Asian perspective of the game,” said Denmark’s Martin Vilstrup Andersen to ihf.info.

“It is on the central court too so there’s a lot of people back home in Denmark following us and they can watch us play down here in China.”

Andersen also had chance to reflect on being one of the flagbearers for Denmark at the opening ceremony on Thursday (7 August).

“It was huge, I didn’t expect it, but it's an honour,” he said. “Just a shout-out to the host nation for it as it was the coolest and most crazy – in a good way – opening ceremony I've ever seen. The fireworks, all the volunteers. It is something you're going to remember and I'm happy I did it, because in four years’ time I don't know if I will be at The World Games because of my age, or if we qualify. It was unbelievable.”

The World Games Chengdu 2025 – Beach Handball: Day 3 schedule
(All times local, CST)

Saturday 9 August 

Preliminary Group

Women’s Competition
1530    ARG vs CHN, POR vs CRO
1710    GER vs DEN, ESP vs VIE

Men’s Competition
1620    CRO vs POR, GER vs BRA
1800    DEN vs CHN, ESP vs TUN