The Palau d’Esports, Granollers sees history repeat as Republic of Korea take on Germany in the opening clash of main round group III on Friday.

At the Olympic Games Barcelona 1992, the two teams played in the semi-final of the women’s handball competition at the same venue with the Asian side overcoming the European powerhouse on their way to retaining their title. They will need to beat Germany again if they are to continue with their dreams of making the quarter-finals.

Hungary will look to get back on track against Congo with the Hungarian’s further progression hanging on a thread unlike their opponents, and Czech Republic who will aim to stop Denmark confirming their last-eight place.

Republic of Korea vs Germany 15:30 CET

While that 1992 Olympic Games clash may have been played before all but three of the Korean team at Spain 2021 were born, these two teams battled it out most recently at the 2019 IHF Women’s World Championship in Japan, with a 27:27 draw the result.

Overall, Korea has the lead in the head-to-head history with nine wins in 17 games. Germany have won seven times. In the World Championship, they have met eight times with Germany winning five of them.

With two European sides faced in their last two games, the Korea defence has certainly had an experience facing shooters, but despite a heavy loss (23:35) against Denmark, their win against Czech Republic (32:26) last time out has helped 22-year-old Korean goalkeeper Jeong Jinhui in her continued development.

“The shooting of European players is way better than any other Asian players,” said Jeong to ihf.info. “We need to be careful of their long-distance shooting but we also need to be more prepared for our wing defence.

“Whenever Denmark got caught by our defence, they never stopped playing, they always tried to do something and sometimes they scored, so that is really remarkable.

“We’re not satisfied with our game against Czech Republic, but the defence was really good,” she added. “If we do our best during any games we can win them. It helps me a lot when my teammates cheer me after I make saves. It may seem not that huge but when your teammates are cheering sometimes it makes a good result so it’s really positive.

“To win the game against Germany the communication between our defensive players is the most important thing. I’ll try to communicate more with the defence and then maybe I can save more shots but we will do a lot of video analysis. This helps me to analyse my movements, it’s really helpful and it’s good for mental training too. We do video analysis together [as a team] but also when I get personal free time I watch the videos analysis by myself. 

Defence is the key word amongst the Korea team ahead of the Germany clash with coach Jang In-Ik promising an exciting clash. 

“The advantage of the Korean team is always one-on-one plays and speed and we always take advantage from that,” he said to ihf.info. “European players are bigger and taller than us but we need to do a more aggressive defence during the next games. Please watch our matches, we’re going to have fun games.”

Germany coach Henk Groener saw his side open up their main round campaign with a 29:18 win over Congo, but it was not as clear as the result would suggest, with Congo playing a strong second half, a half in which they led the scoring on a number of occasions. 

“For all the players it's clear that the performance of today, if we want to go on in tournament, has to step up,” he said to ihf.info. “If we are able focus better and do that, and I think we can, then it would be a good thing that we have this wake-up call because we have to raise the level before Korea. 

“If we start good again in defence that will give us a good a good foundation for good results. In offence we made too many mistakes to call this game a top performance. We should have been the more dominant team in this game and we were not enough in my opinion. We will talk about that with the team about that and I'm sure we will put things right.”

Hungary vs Congo 18:00 CET

Hungary are still in with a chance against Congo, but they may face a relaxed side who are taking each game as it comes with no expectations.

“For us, the competition was over after we won against Tunisia,” said Congo line player Sharon Dorson to ihf.info. “Now, it's just a bonus; we just try to play, but everybody is tired and very weak. It’s quite hard for everyone. We know that Germany and Hungary would be really hard and we will try and maybe do something in the last game against Czech Republic.

“I know that sometimes we are better in the second half,” she added about that impressive performance against Germany in their 18:29 loss. “I don't know why we don't do this at the beginning. It's always hard to have to start a good game. Every game, even against Denmark and Korea we were better in the second half. 

“But we have potential, it's a young team. We just started to work together in March so we don't really know each other. This championship is also a bonus and we are preparing for the next African championships.”

“We are learning and progressing but happy we are competitive against good teams,” added the injured Josephine Nkou, who smiled when ihf.info asked if she was the new assistant coach, such is her influence from the bench.  “Josephine has a different role in the team now, she tries to advise on the attacks or defence,” smiled coach Younes Tatby.

Czech Republic vs Denmark 20:30 CET

“I am out of words and full of emotion. I am really sad because the chance for us [to qualify] has gone,” said Czech Republic Sara Kovarova after their 32:25 main round loss against Korea which knocked them out of contention for further progression at Spain 2021.“We woke up too late during the match.”

A poor defensive performance in the first half was to blame for Korea getting ahead with just one save made by both goalkeepers in the first 25 minutes of the match but coach Jan Basny was clear what the problem was.

“We don’t separate defensive work from the goalkeepers work,” he said to ihf.info “So whenever the defence is bad the goalkeepers have it really bad to make some saves.”

Denmark are firing on full cylinders, with their best performance of Spain 2021 yet last time out – a 30:19 win over Hungary.