The final 16 games of the 2024 IHF Men’s and Women’s Beach Handball World Championships main round take place on Friday (21 June) at the 'Pingtan International Beach Sports Base' on Pingtan Island, People's Republic of China.

With 13 of the 16 quarter-final spots already taken, just three places in the last eight were available as China 2024 gets ready to enter its business stage.

Croatia and Netherlands claim final two women’s quarter-final places

2018 world champions Greece failed at the last hurdle to make it through to the knockout stages, losing in a shoot-out to Netherlands (2:3) after coming from behind to win the second set and go through from Main Round Group II. They are joined by group winners Denmark, who beat Brazil via shoot-out (9:6) and Germany, who, playing without goalkeeper Nele Kurzke – red-carded in the earlier match today – squeezed past Norway 8:4 via shoot-out.

This was one of two open spots in the last eight in the final women’s main round session with the second one coming in another direct clash – the Main Round Group I match between Philippines and Croatia.

The Asian side were making their world championship debut, while the European side were returning to the event for the first time since 2012.

After winning the throw-off, Philippines went ahead early on (4:0) but were clawed back within two minutes (4:4), before the Europeans went up 8:6 after five minutes. The Philippines attack was stalling against the strong defensive work from the Croatia side, coached by Jelena Grebenar – who was part of the last Croatian team to play at a world championship.

Eventually, the Europeans pushed ahead, taking the first set by nine (24:15) and then easing to the 2-0 victory with a 21:12 second set result. The win was the third in a row over Asian opposition for Croatia at China 2024, with Grebenar’s side previously seeing off the challenge of both the host nation and Asian champions Vietnam.

In the remaining Group I games, Argentina defeated Portugal 2-0 and Spain overcame China by the same score. This saw the South Americans top the group, followed by Spain, Portugal and Croatia – all through to the quarter-finals – with Philippines in fifth and China bottom.

In the consolation round the USA beat Puerto Rico and Asian champions Vietnam beat Oceania champions Australia. 

Argentina through to last eight as USA and Tunisia hopes die

Lucas Matias Coronel was again Argentina’s hero as his second shoot-out winning strike of the day saw off a dogged USA side in their winner-takes-all final Main Round, Group II game. 

In what was a testy clash, managed well by the officials, the stakes were high for both to make their own history with the winning team qualifying through to the quarter-finals for the first time in their history.

And after a golden goal first set winner for the North American side, the South American outfit came back to take the second before it went to a shoot-out, won 9:8 thanks to Coronel.

“I thank my teammates, who gave me total confidence,” said Coronel after the game. “Without them I wouldn’t be anything. We will now play Denmark. It will be hard but we played on an equal footing against Croatia, the defending world champions, and against other European sides. We can win that game.”

“It’s a huge pride, pure happiness for all of us,” added Coronel’s teammate Francisco Nunez Muller. “We are used to having ups and downs, [but] we are fighters.”

Croatia beat a depleted Germany – missing Lennart Liebeck who was red-carded in the previous match – to secure top spot, while Portugal ended in third with a 2-1 win over Qatar thanks to a 7:6 shoot-out win.

The results mean that Croatia won the group, followed by Germany in second, Portugal in third, Argentina in fourth, followed by the USA in fifth and Qatar in bottom spot.

In Group I, Denmark recorded a 2-0 win over Tunisia but needed a golden goal to win the first set, before going on to easily win the second 20:8. Brazil defeated European champions Hungary 2-0 (19:18, 16:14) and Spain beat Oman 2-0 (32:20, 20:21).

The results saw the Danes top the group followed by Brazil, Spain and Hungary in the quarter-finals. Tunisia finished fifth and Oman ended bottom.

China and Uruguay both won their Consolation Round games 2-0, with the hosts seeing off Australia (21:20, 18:14) and Uruguay dispatching Puerto Rico 24:20, 22:8.

All games will be streamed live on the IHF Competitions YouTube chancel (geo-restrictions will apply) click HERE https://www.ihf.info/media-center/news/how-watch-and-follow-china-2024-ihf-mens-and-womens-beach-handball-world for more information.

Results (afternoon/evening) – Friday 21 June 2024

Men’s Competition

Consolation Round
AUS vs CHN 0-2 (20:21, 14:18)
PUR vs URU 0-2 (22:24, 8:22)

Main Round, Group I
DEN vs TUN 2-0 (20:18, 20:8)
HUN vs BRA 0-2 (18:19, 14:16)
OMA vs ESP 0-2 (20:32, 21:20)

Main Round, Group II
CRO vs GER 2-0 (25:24, 22:20)
POR vs QAT 2-1 (18:20, 23:18, SO 7:6)
ARG vs USA 2-1 (18:19, 26:24, SO 9:8)

Women’s Competition

Consolation Round
USA vs PUR 2-0 (22:18, 20:18)
AUS vs VIE 0-2 (14:30, 11:28)

Main Round, Group I
POR vs ARG 0-2 (20:25, 18:22)
PHI vs CRO 0-2 (15:24, 12:21)
CHN vs ESP 0-2 (10:24, 13:16)

Main Round, Group II
DEN vs BRA 2-1 (14:16, 22:20, SO 9:6)
NED vs GRE 2-1 (24:12, 24:26, SO 3:2)
NOR vs GER 1-2 (24:22, 18:23, SO 4:8)