Placement round 9 – 12

Denmark – Brazil 36:26 (20:13)

Denmark with more commitment

In the first semi-final of the placement round for the places 9 to 12 Denmark beat Brazil clearly with 36:26 and is now heading for the final match, where they will compete with Croatia for the places 9/10. Brazil will play against Austria for places 11/12. This game was the encounter of two disappointed teams, who both surprisingly lost their eight-finals. But the conclusions they drew from it were very different. Denmark started the placement matches with the intention to show everyone what could have been, if things would had been gone differently, while the Brazilians had lost there motivation and showed from game to game weaker performance, which was also the reason for the easy victory for Denmark. They only needed the first 30 minutes to achieve a pre-deciding lead of 20:13. And during the second half Denmark was still the much better team. So at the end they won highly earned against the Pan-Americans and might reach a conciliatory end of this Junior World Championship in the match for place nine on Friday. Best scorer of this match was Deborah Pontes (Brasil) with seven goals.

Austria – Croatia 21:30 (12:13)

Croatia wins in the closing period

In the second semifinal of the placement round for the places 9 to 12 Croatia beat the team from Austria clearly with 30:21 and is now going to face the decisive placement match for places 9/10 against Denmark, while Austria is heading the match for places 11/12 against Brazil. It was quiet a piece of tough work for the Croatian team to beat their competitor. It took them more than 45 minutes to build up a clear lead. After 30 minutes Austria was just one goal behind (12:13) and had still good chances to come back to this match. But during the last quarter Croatia had the stronger performance and achieved a well earned victory. Best scorer of this match was Sonja Frey (Austria) with nine goals.

Placement round 13 – 16

Romania – Czech Republic 30:23 (14:10)

The host was polite

In the first match of the placement round for the places 13 to 16 the team of Czech republic lost against Romania with 23:30. So the host of this Junior World Championship will play the final placement match for places 15/16 against the looser of the match between Congo and Spain on Friday. The Czech girls tried their very best to keep up with the Romanian team, and they were quiet successful for a long time. Even when they were back with 11:16 shortly after the beginning of the second half, they didn´t give up, came back into the match and kept it open for a few minutes more (13:16, 16:20). But in the last quarter of this placement match Romania was the dominating team with the stronger performance and the Czech girls had to accept their upcoming defeat. Nevertheless the host has achieved his aim by reaching the eight-finals. Now they have the chance to say goodbye to their supporters with a victory against Congo in their final match on Friday. Best scorer of this match was Maria Andreea Ianasi (Romania) with nine goals.

Congo – Spain 18:34 (8:16)

Spain without problems

Without any bigger problems Spain won their so-called semifinal for places 13 to 16 against the decimated team from Congo clearly with 34:18. So now it is clear that Spain will go to the match for places 13/14 against Romania, while Congo will play against the team of Czech Republic who is host of this Junior World Championship. Spain only needed one half to provide for significant relationships. After the first 30 minutes they were clearly in lead with 16:8. The Iberian team extended it´s lead goal by goal after the break. During the second period of this match Congo wasn´t able to come back and so Spain achieved this victory clearly and easily. Best scorer of this match was Grace Zoubabela (Congo) with eleven goals.

 
Placement round 5 – 8

Korea – Poland 25:23 (10:12)

A question of power

In the first semifinal for placement round 5 to 8 Korea came to a close victory against the selection of Poland, which was the ticket to the final placement match for places 5/6 against the winner of the match between Norway and Russia. The loosing team, of course, will play against the other loser for places 7/8. After a tight first half, in which Korea was playing out a two-goal-advantage (12:10), it seemed as if the leading team of Korea had problems with diminishing forces. So Poland caught up and became better and better, but with the exception of a short period in the middle of the first half, when Poland made it to a three-goal-lead (18:15), the match between two nearly equal teams was tight until the exciting last minutes. It was 22:22 after 54 minutes and at least it was a question of power after one and a half week of this exhausting tournament. And the Asians could set up again their last reserves. While Poland failed to score for six minutes – they made their last goal five seconds before the end – , Korea made three goals and won at the end well-deserved, but Poland had the best scorer of this match: It was Aleksandra Zych with eight goals.

Norway – Russia 24:26 (12:17)

Russia slightly better 

Two bitterly disappointed teams played against each other in the semifinal of the placement round for places 5 to 8, when Russia met Norway. But although both teams lost their quarterfinals on the day before, they showed up a real properly performance and took this match seriously. So for the first twenty minutes it was a tight match on a gratifying level. But during the last period of the first half Russia started to build up a five-goal-lead until the break (17:12). It was right after restart, that it seemed, as if Russia could decide this match quiet early with two more goals (19:12 after 32 minutes), but Norway found a way back into this almost lost match. After 41 minutes the Scandinavians came to an intermediate result of 16:20. But that was nearly as far as it went. The match was not as good as in the first half, so Russia had little difficulties to keep the lead, because Norway lost their power and started to weaken. At the end Russia will go to the decisive match for places 5/6 against Korea, while Norway will play against Poland for places 7/8. Best scorers of this match were the two Russian players Daria Dimitieva and Ksenia Milova, who both made six goals.