Three days. Only three more days will determine who the new trophy holder is at the IHF Men’s World Championship. Until then, though, we still have to get through some crunch semi-finals scheduled for Friday in the ERGO Arena in Gdansk and the Tele2 Arena in Stockholm.

It might have been a surprise for many or a confirmation for others. Still, the four teams that qualified for the penultimate act at Egypt 2021 are back fighting for the trophy again at Poland/Sweden 2023, as Denmark, France, Spain and Sweden have made it to the final weekend with their hopes intact.

The first semi-final will pit Spain and Denmark, a rematch of their meeting at Egypt 2021 when Denmark qualified for the final. The Scandinavian side is now on a 26-match unbeaten streak in the competition and could become the first team to three-peat lifting the trophy in the history of the IHF Men’s World Championship. 

Moving on to Stockholm, co-hosts Sweden aim to make it twice in a row to the final of the world handball flagship competition when they face France. Their challenge will be even tougher as they have lost the MVP of the EHF EURO 2022, Jim Gottfridsson, who is injured and will miss the crunch matches at Poland/Sweden 2023.

Before the France vs Sweden showdown, the Tele2 Arena in Stockholm will also deliver the placement matches for the final standings, with Germany facing Egypt and Norway clashing against Hungary, as the winners will go to the 5/6 Placement Match on Sunday and the losers will be in the 7/8 Placement Match. 

We talked in-depth about the quarter-finals to see exactly what clicked and what was hot in these excellent matches, including the classic between Norway and Spain, which will be a vintage match at the IHF Men’s World Championship.

All the statistics, tailor-made for everyone, are just one click away, so you can follow your favourite player and see who’s the best scorer, the best assists provider and the best goalkeeper. 

Only two players have scored over 50 goals – Chile’s Erwin Feuchtmann (54 goals) and Denmark’s Mathias Gidsel (51 goals). The caveat is that Gidsel still has two more matches to play. Therefore, he is the favourite to end up in first place in the top goal scorer standings.

Let’s also talk about goalkeepers, shall we? Two Sweden shot-stoppers are on the podium for saving efficiency, Tobias Thulin (48%) and Andreas Palicka (40%). They are split by France’s Rémi Desbonnet (43%), who was immense in the win against Germany in the quarter-finals.

Curious about where you can follow your team on TV? Don’t worry, we also got you covered – just click here! 

Don’t forget you can also win prizes by predicting the results of the matches at Poland/Sweden 2023. 

The IHF is working hard to bring you the very best from what is sure to be an exciting competition, and wherever you are, there are many ways to follow the action! Make sure you stay up to date, follow our social media channels and find out which was the pic of the day and the best actions of the day! 

You can also check the best plays from the first day on our Facebook and Instagram accounts, with plenty of mouthwatering goals ready to be seen. Once again, we want to highlight this amazing passage of play from the Norway vs Spain quarter-final, which set up Spain for the win. Have you ever seen anything like this?