Paris 2024 | Denmark avoid shock against Slovenia to make third consecutive Olympics final

09 Aug. 2024

Paris 2024 | Denmark avoid shock against Slovenia to make third consecutive Olympics final

Denmark secured their third consecutive finals berth at the Olympic Games, with a hard-fought 31:30 win over Slovenia, extending their run of wins in the men’s handball competition at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games to seven matches.

In their maiden semi-final in the competition, Slovenia took the fight to the reigning world champions, but eventually conceded a loss, having another chance on Sunday morning, in the bronze medal match.

PARIS 2024 OLYMPIC GAMES
SEMI-FINAL
Slovenia vs Denmark 30:31 (10:15)

It was the ultimate mismatch in terms of experience, as Denmark had won the last two semi-finals at the Olympic Games, their last three at the IHF Men’s World Championship and the last two at the EHF EURO, while Slovenia were for the first time in their history in this position at the Olympics.

Therefore, the previously-unbeaten Denmark were the big favourites for this match, but Slovenia were one of the two teams which won against the Scandinavian powerhouse in 2024, at the EHF EURO, knowing the recipe for a potential surprise, which would surely have been the bombshell at Paris 2024.

Yet Denmark had a slow start, marked by some key misses due to some superb Klemen Ferlin saves, as the Slovenia goalkeeper had four saves out of the first seven shots he faced, including some one-on-one situations. On the other hand, Denmark’s goalkeeper, Emil Nielsen, delivered a fantastic performance himself, preventing Slovenia to score from open play for nearly 10 minutes.

As Slovenia’s first goal came after eight minutes and 22 seconds, courtesy of an Aleks Vlah penalty, Denmark were already ahead by three goals at that point, but still missed a bit of rhythm in their attack, allowing their opponents to stay close and try to put as much pressure in defence on the reigning world champions.

That plan worked until late in the first half, with Slovenia having a single-goal deficit, 8:7, after 22 minutes. But when Denmark start to hit their attacks, they become virtually unstoppable. Therefore, in the next eight minutes, Denmark went on a scoring spree, putting seven goals past Sloveia, with all their main players, like Simon Pytlick, Mathias Gidsel or Mikkel Hansen chiming in.

It was a frenzy of goals for the Scandinavian side, as Slovenia’s defence collapsed, eventually helping Denmark to build a five-goal lead at the break, 15:10, making the rookies’ challenge even more difficult in the second part of the match.

Once again, Slovenia had help from Vlah, who improved his overall tally to 53 goals at Paris 2024, with seven goals in the match, but it was also centre back Dean Bombac who was hard to stop by Denmark, putting seven goals past the Scandinavian side’s goalkeepers, Nielsen and Niklas Landin.

As Slovenia cut the gap to three goals, 19:16, Denmark’s coach, Nikolaj Jacobsen called a team time-out to weather the storm and it proved to be the right decision, as in the next six minutes his side scored seven times, to open yet another five-goal lead, 26:21, with the game looking done and dusted.

Yet Slovenia did not pull back from anything and did their utmost to stress Denmark until the end. As Denmark scored – with Gidsel, Pytlick, Hansen and Magnus Landin combining for 19 goals – so did Slovenia, managing the gap to perfection between the 40th and the 54th minute, as it hovered around the three-four goals mark.

But Slovenia pushed harder and harder and when the clock had one minute left, Blaz Janc put a shot past Niklas Landin to cut the gap to a single goal, 30:31, with the French fans in the Stade Pierre Mauroy chanted “Allez les Bleus” – a reference to the blue colour of the shirts of Zorman’s side.

It turned out to be a penalty for Denmark, missed by Hansen, with Slovenia’s last attack ending with a free throw missed by Borut Mackovsek, as Denmark eventually sealed a 31:30 win, a tough pill to swallow for Slovenia, which can be proud of their efforts against the reigning world champions.

Denmark now qualify for the final of the Olympic Games for the three times in a row, where they face Germany, while Slovenia are due to face Spain in the bronze medal match, after a superb performance throughout the whole competition.