With Norway and Brazil confirmed as qualified through to the quarter-finals ahead of the final match day of the main round in Dortmund, the battle between the two continental champions will only decide who finishes top of the group and who will play Germany or Montenegro in the last eight.

The two other games inside the Westfalenhalle on Sunday (7 December) are chances for all four teams involved to end their world championship campaign on a high as they look forward to Hungary 2027.

In Group I, Denmark and Hungary battle for the first place after securing their quarter-finals berths, while Romania aim for a top-10 finish in their match against Switzerland.

Main Round, Group I
15:30 CET Senegal vs Japan

Both teams step into their final match at Germany/Netherlands 2025 knowing the quarter-finals are out of reach, but the motivation to finish strong remains sky-high. Japan are aiming to climb back toward their 11th-place finish from 2021, after dropping to 17th in 2023, and this time they want to wrap up the main round undefeated.

Japan made a brilliant start in Rotterdam, beating Switzerland 27:21, then nearly pulled off a shock against Hungary, even leading by five, before settling for a dramatic 26:26 draw. They were painfully close to entering the final day with real top-eight hopes and will now want to close their campaign on a high.

Senegal, on the other hand, delivered several good performances but lacked the results to show for it. Their only win at this World Championship came against the Islamic Republic of Iran, while in the main round they simply could not keep pace with Denmark and Romania.

This will be the first-ever meeting between the two sides.

18:00 CET Switzerland vs Romania

After three straight defeats, Switzerland are hoping to end their historic first World Championship on a positive note. Knut Ove Joa’s debutants have shown heart and energy, and their narrow 23:26 loss to Denmark proved how far they have come. However, it also highlighted the issue that has followed them all tournament: turnovers. With 73 in total, averaging 14.6 per game, Switzerland know that cutting those mistakes is the only way to challenge Romania.

Romania entered the main round knowing their clash with Hungary could make or break their quarter-final hopes, but they simply could not keep pace in the key moments, losing 29:34. They bounced back immediately, overpowering Senegal 37:17 in a high-scoring performance that restored confidence.

After finishing between 10th and 13th place in the last four editions, Romania want to stay in that zone or even climb a bit higher, and that requires a win on the final day as well as favourable results elsewhere.

These two nations have never met at a major competition, though they did face off in the Women’s EHF EURO 2010 qualification, where Romania won 76:44 on aggregate.

20:30 CET Hungary vs Denmark

Denmark and Hungary arrive at the final main round clash unbeaten, but not carrying the same momentum. Hungary let their winning streak slip against Japan, forcing them to settle for a draw after trailing for much of the game. Denmark kept their perfect record intact, meaning that even a single point tonight seals first place in the group. Hungary, however, need a top-notch performance to leapfrog their opponents. The stakes are first place and avoiding co-hosts Germany in the quarter-finals and facing Montenegro instead, even though there are no easy opponents in the knock-out phase.

Hungary will now face the second-most efficient attack of the entire competition, as Denmark score 37.2 goals per game, while the Hungarians sit at 33 but are still among the top 10 attacking sides. Defensively, Hungary hold the stronger numbers, conceding just 21.4 goals on average, while Denmark follow at 24.2. Still, with Anna Kristensen and Amalie Milling combining for 36% save efficiency, Denmark’s defence remains a tougher wall than the numbers alone suggest.

In attack, Denmark are driven by rising star Julie Scaglione – one of the nominees for the “Best Young Player Award presented by LIDL” – who is on 29 goals, while Hungary rely on their proven duo Gréta Márton (25) and Katrin Klujber (24) to keep the rhythm.

These two teams know each other extremely well, with more than 20 official encounters, including 10 at World Championships. Hungary have five wins, Denmark four, and one World Championship match ended in a draw.

Main Round, Group IV
15:30 CET Republic of Korea vs Czechia

Both teams will look to get two points and off the mark in the main round in this clash with Korea coming off of the back of one of their best performances in the competition so far, losing by just five goals (32:27) – and it could have been less – against Sweden last time out, despite an injury-depleted, young squad. Czechia faced the Norwegian juggernaut and were promptly seen off 37:14 in their previous game. 

“We go all-in in the last game,” said Czechia co-coach Tomas Hlavaty, about the final game his side will face at Germany/Netherlands 2025. “I am really happy that we are physically quite ok through the whole tournament and we go all-in.”

I try to motivate our players as it is the last time we are playing here. As we have young players, we are trying to motivate them as they have a long time ahead of them. We are having a really difficult with some injured players, we are in a hard situation but we will try our best to beat Czechia.

18:00 CET Angola vs Sweden

These two teams have met seven times, Sweden winning five, Angola once and one draw. Their first and most recent encounters have come at world championships. In December 2015 in Denmark, Sweden won 37:23 in the group stage, while at Korea 2009 the European side won 28:14 in the 13-16 placement round.

Last time out Sweden let slip a big lead to see off Korea 32:27, while Angola lost their last chance of qualifying for the knock-out stages with almost the same score (32:26) in their lost to Brazil.

“It's a match we have to win. We should tie the knot in a fairly dignified way. When we gather again in the spring, we want to have a slightly better feeling than the one we had before the match against Korea. So we are 100 percent committed to winning,” said Sweden’s Olivia Löfqvist to handbollslandslaget.se. 

“It's just about winning every match when we wear the national team jersey. It's no exception even when we're eliminated. We'll stand up as a team and hope we can put in a good performance against Angola.

20:30 CET Norway vs Brazil

The continental clash between the European and South and Central American champions could be one of the highlights of the world championship in Dortmund as both teams looks to fine tune themselves ahead of knockout games against Montenegro and Germany.

Both coaches will be eager to minimise any injury possibilities, rotate their squad and, possibly, try some things out, but one thing is for sure, this game is a testament to the longevity of two legends and world championship-winning players: Brazil’s 44-year-old winger Alexandra do Nascimento Martinez and Norway’s 45-year-old goalkeeper Katrine Lunde.

The pair have been influential for both teams who come into this game with five wins out of five at Germany/Netherlands 2025 as the main round ends in Dortmund with this exciting match-up.

These two teams met at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in a quarter-final to forget for the South Americans as Norway secured the largest win in the history of the last eight in the women’s handball competition at the Olympic Games, winning 32:15 (16:8).