Like in all Men’s World Championships since 2007, European champion Denmark has reached the semi-final in Spain. After a brilliant first half the team of coach Ulrik Wilbek had to struggle hard after the break to beat Hungary 28:26 (18:11) on Wednesday 23 January). For Denmark it is the in total eighth participation in a Men’s World Championship semi. The Danish match on Friday in Barcelona against Croatia – will start at 21.30 hrs. local times.

The Finalist of the 2011 World Championship in Sweden had the better start and was in lead by 3:0 after only for minutes. It took the Hungarian team seven minutes and 15 seconds to score for the first time. Nevertheless Denmark extended the gap to 7:2 especially thanks to the saves of goalkeeper Niklas Landin, who saved six of eight shots in the first twelve minutes of this quarter-final. Lajos Mocsai, the Hungarian coach, had to take a very early team time-out (13.) to make some corrections. But nothing changed: After 25 minutes Denmark was in lead by seven goals (14:7) and defended this margin until the break.

But then Hungary came up and scored four consecutive goals. At 15:19 and still 26 minutes to go their hopes started to rise again. The match was leveled latest when Hungary reduced the gap to only one one minute and 30 seconds before the end for 26:27. But when Henrik Mollgaard scored for Denmark 45 seconds later the match was decided. Best scorer of the match was Hans Lindberg with ten goals by 10 attempts.

Statements on the match

Ulrik Wilbek (coach Denmark): It were two quiet different halves in this match. In the first half we played very well in defense with a fantastic

Niklas Landin. The break was not good for us. We need to play better than in second half, if we want to have a chance for the final.

Henrik Mollbeck (player Denmark): In the first half it seemed we were the team determined to win, in the second half we were afraid to lose. It was a lot of stress, a lot of nerves, but now we are going to the semi-finals.

Lajos Mocsai (coach Hungary): We gave the first period as an advantage to the Danish team. At least the margin was too big to turn the match around completely. In the first half Denmark scored nine goals by fast-break. In the second half we played handball with a different spirit.

Gergely Harsanyi (player Hungary): The Danish team has a lot of famous players. We respected them too much during the first half. But we were satisfied with our match in the second half. I am proud of my team, although we missed the semi-final.