The main round and the group phase of the President’s Cup have now concluded at the 24th IHF Men’s Junior World Championship, with 80 matches gone and only eight teams remaining in the hunt for the trophy.

There have been shocks, favourites dropping out of the race, underdogs which shined and dark horses which can now produce some of the biggest surprises this championship has ever seen. There have also been plenty of goals in the competition, so let’s see who was hot, who was not and what can we expect in the last six days at Germany/Greece 2023.

Ellefsen Á Skipagotu and Faroe Islands – a true fairytale story

The hottest topic at Germany/Greece 2023 is definitely the Faroe Islands, a team representing a nation of 54,000 inhabitants, which has just qualified to the quarter-finals and looks like a team ready to mean business, ready to challenge for the title until the final days of the competition, riding a five-game winning streak, which includes wins against Spain and Portugal – the finalists at the M20 EHF EURO 2022 – on their way to the quarter-finals.

When we featured the current top scorer of the competition, centre back Elias Ellefsen Á Skipagotu, Faroe’s star said that the team is aiming for a place in the knock-out phase, going on a limb and wishing for a semi-final berth. Indeed, he has been nothing short of amazing so far and the success of the team is also thanks to his amazing games, leading the standings in both goals (39) and assists (31).

Right wing Hákun West Av Teigum is the sixth top scorer, with 34 goals so far in the competition, forging a perfect partnership with Ellefsen Á Skipagotu, as the players, who will switch this summer to Bundesliga powerhouses, have set alight the competition in Germany. This could be the greatest ever success in the history of the sport in the Faroe Islands. Therefore, the pressure will be felt by the underdogs, but all in all, this has truly been a fairytale for the Faroe team.

A new record number of goals?

4692 goals have been scored at the 2023 IHF Men’s Junior World Championship, an average of 58.65 per game, making it, at least so far, the edition with the highest average number of goals scored per game, with 36 games still scheduled in Germany and Greece for the next days of the competition.

Nine teams have scored at least 170 goals – or an average of 34 goals per game – in their five matches so far at Germany/Greece 2023, with Poland being the team with the highest number of goals scored (183). France and Egypt, with 179 and 177 goals respectively, complete the podium, as the first team to be still in contention for the title in these standings is Germany, on the fourth place, with 175 goals scored so far.

The record so far for the highest average number of goals scored in a single event at the IHF Men’s Junior World Championship is 58.23 goals per game, set at Egypt 2009 when Germany became champions for the first time in their history.

European sides write history at Germany/Greece 2022

The current system with a knock-out phase containing at least the quarter-finals has been introduced at the IHF Men’s Junior World Championship in 2009 and for the past six editions, at least one team from outside of Europe made the top eight each time. In fact, to go back into history, a non-European side finished on one of the top eight places every time in the last 32 years.

The last edition of the world handball flagship competition when all the first eight places were sealed by European sides was at Greece 1991, 32 years ago, when Yugoslavia secured the gold medal with a 27:16 win over Sweden. Since then, at least one of Egypt, Tunisia, Argentina or Brazil made the top eight every time, with an excellent streak going on.

However, that streak is over at Germany/Greece 2023, as Egypt, Tunisia, Bahrain and Brazil were all eliminated in the main round of the competition, failing to make the cut for the quarter-finals. All eight sides still in the hunt for the trophy are European, with all but two – Iceland and Croatia – making the top 10 last summer at the M20 EHF EURO 2022.

Bahrain, another big surprise to keep the eyes on

The Faroe Islands were surely one of the big, if not the biggest, surprise at Germany/Greece 2023, but which team overcame their expectations to shock everybody in the competition? That will surely be Bahrain, an Asian side which already impressed at senior level, but was quite an unknown quantity at the junior level, having previously finished 17th in both their appearances at the IHF Men’s Junior World Championship, at Argentina 1995 and Spain 2019.

This time around, Bahrain shocked everybody with a 29:29 draw against Slovenia, with the European side snatching a point in the last second after a penalty. The Asian side still needed to win big, with at least 42 goals against Greenland, to be sure of a place in the main round if Slovenia lost against Sweden and they duly delivered a huge win.

The 63:13 scoreline was the biggest gap registered in the competition since 1999 and Bahrain forced their way through to the main round with that 50-goal win, sealing their best-ever result, irrespective of their losses against Hungary (21:27) and Denmark (22:28), respectable results for an emerging team at this level.