Sunday (10 August) sees the knockout stages reach the men’s and women’s beach handball competitions at The World Games Chengdu 2025.

All 16 teams in the event are in the last eight, with eight games one after the other on the central court down on the edge of Xinglong Lake.

All games will be streamed live and free, for further details, click HERE.

Asian duo look to upset dominant Germany and Argentina in last eight

With perfect records so far – three wins from three games and no sets lost – Argentina and Germany appear to be on course to repeat their 2024 IHF Women’s Beach Handball World Championship final last year in Pingtan, China.

But Vietnam and China will look to have a say in the matter despite both sides going into their clashes as huge underdogs.

The opening match-up of the day will see the South and Central America (SCAHC) champions take on the Asian (AHF) champions with Leticia Brunati’s Argentina side facing Minh Ngon Huynh’s Vietnam.

The Vietnamese came close to beating European champions Spain via shoot-out in their final preliminary group game on Saturday (9 August) and that will give them hope, but Brunati’s side look absolutely deadly in both defence, attack and everything else in-between.

Last year, the two sides met at China 2024 with Argentina claiming a 2-0 (20:14, 26:16) preliminary group stage win. Argentina’s Gisella Bonomi is way out in front in the top-scoring charts, 10 points clear of her nearest rival, on 48 points recorded, she has got there through the hard work of Lucila Balsas, who tops the assists charts with 21.

“With the quarter-finals a new tournament begins,” said Brunati after her side defeated China on Saturday (10 August). “It's not important what we have done today, yesterday or the day before, what is important is tomorrow.”

The second women’s quarter-final sees neighbouring Spain and Portugal revisit their 2025 IHF Beach Handball Global Tour: Stage 2 preliminary group game played in Laredo, Spain just a few weeks ago.

Spain defeated The World Games debutants Portugal 2-1 (10:13, 23:20, SO 9:6) and with Portugal boasting the meanest defence in both the men’s and women’s competitions at Chengdu 2025, with just 84 points conceded in their three games, this one will be a fascinating watch – particularly the form of Patricia Encinas Guardado who has made the most saves (24) and Jimena Laguna Contreras who sits behind Bonomi in the assists and scoring charts, with 46.

Down the other end of the court, Germany boast the most potent attack, scoring 131 points in their three games so far. Host nation China will be their opponents in the third quarter-final of the day and the hosts will take heart from their impressive opening day victory against fellow European side, Croatia.

However, like Argentina, Germany are playing beach handball on a different level to most. With players inside the top five of all key statistics, it highlights the depth and breadth of quality that coach Alexander Novakovic can call on – including 16-year-old specialist Emma Pilz.

“I'm really happy to have her here. She's a great talent and everyone can see that,” said Germany’s captain Kirsten Walter about Pilz to ihf.info. “The other teams here were like; ‘who's this?’ She's jumping very high; she has a goal efficiency that's pretty cool and off the court she incorporates into our team pretty well and we’re happy to see what she can do in the future.

“The stadium is already quite full with Chinese,” added Walter about their last eight match. “The Chinese crowd are cheering for all of the teams, but in our match, it will probably be against us. That's something that we can use for us; getting power from it and trying to get to the semi-finals.”

The last of the four women’s quarter-finals sees Denmark play Croatia, a repeat of their game at the same stage of the world championship last year, won by the Danes 2-0 (27:22, 22:18).

Croatia are warming up after a slow start, finally getting off the mark with victory over Portugal on Saturday (9 August), while Denmark hope to push through and add to the 2019 ANOC World Beach Games title.

World Championship semi-final repeat highlight of men’s quarter-finals

The opening quarter-final pits Spain against The World Games title-holders Croatia. The two teams met as recently as June, the Croatians defeating the Spanish side twice, via shoot-out at the opening stage of the 2025 IHF Beach Handball Global Tour in Hammamet, Tunisia.

In the group stage, it went to the second round of shots – 2-1 (22:26, 26:22, SO 14:12) – with the two teams meeting again the following day for gold, Croatia restricting the Spanish men to just one successful shot in the shoot-out (2-1 26:24, 20:24, SO 6:2). 

Spain have the meanest defence so far, conceding just 103 points in their three games and losing just one set – less than any of the other seven teams.

“We're ready, because as yesterday, as today, we have shown that we can play against anyone, if we are ready in our heads, if we have that spirit in our hearts, we can win against anyone,” said Croatia’s Lucia Lesac to ihf.info before the quarter-finals pairings were confirmed. “We had a great game on the IHF Beach Handball Global Tour with Spain and we just had a great game with Argentina. As long as we believe in our ourselves, no-one will be the [deciding] factor besides us.”

The second quarter-final sees two The World Games debutants who have never met before in elite, top level handball, world championship bronze medallists Portugal, and Tunisia. Portugal have the best goalkeeper in terms of number of saves made, with Ricardo Castro sitting on 16 in his trio of games.

“I expect a very difficult game. It's a game which starts 0-0, as always and it's a game where both teams can win,” said Portugal’s Diogo Ferreira to ihf.info before the quarter-final match-ups were confirmed. “Both teams can go through to the quarter-finals. We need to stay very humble and very confident and focused to get the win.”

The third quarter-final of the day sees a repeat of the China 2024 world championship preliminary group match, Brazil vs China. The hosts, who are without a win so far, take on The World Games ever-presents and three-out-three winners so far, Brazil, in a tough encounter which is likely to repeat the 2-0 (25:10, 30:10) scoreline a year ago unless the home team produce an extraordinary performance in front of a vocal home crowd.

Last year, Denmark saw off Germany 2-0 (25:18, 21:20) in the semi-final of the 2024 IHF Men’s Beach Handball World Championship on Pingtan Island in China. 

Since then, the Germans have been crowned European champions, getting revenge against their continental counterparts last month on their way to gold, defeating the Germans 2-0 (26:18, 21:20) in the main round.

At Chengdu 2025 the Danes are firing on all cylinders in attack. With 158 points in their three games they are the top-scorers, Martin Andersen (58 points) and Christian Nielsen (46) leading the overall scoring charts and Frederik Jensen top of the assists charts, with 28, jointly held with Brazil’s Bruno Oliveira. This last quarter-final looks to end the fourth day of match action in Chengdu with a bang.

The World Games Chengdu 2025 – Beach Handball: Day 4 schedule
(All times local, CST)

Sunday 10 August

Quarter-Finals

Women’s Competition
1000 ARG vs VIE
1140 ESP vs POR
1530 GER vs CHN
1710 CRO vs DEN

Men’s Competition
1050 ESP vs CRO
1440 POR vs TUN
1620 BRA vs CHN
1800 DEN vs GER