After 48 games and 3,408 total points, the 2022 IHF Women’s Youth Beach Handball World Championship has reached the knock-out stage and its penultimate day of action.

Saturday (17 June) will see four quarter-finals played in the opening session with Hungary playing France in the morning (10:20 EEST). This will be followed by Brazil vs Netherlands (11:10), Poland against Germany (12:50) and Spain playing Argentina (12:50).

Last year, at the Women’s 17 EHF Beach Handball EURO 2021, Hungary beat France 2-0 (19:8, 27:20), with the 2017 title-holders in fine form on the sand of Heraklion – out of all 32 teams in Greece currently for the men’s and women’s youth championships, they are the only one who have won all of their games and are unbeaten. It will be a tough test for the French.

Four 9-16 placement round matches will be played too: Greece vs India, Puerto Rico vs Romania, Thailand vs Hong Kong and Ukraine vs Uruguay.

Once all eight of these clashes are played, the 5-8, 9-12 and 13-16 rounds will be known, plus the two semi-finals, which will get underway at 19:20 and 21:00 on the central court.

The top scorers at this stage are Eva Heuten (Netherlands) on 104 points, followed by Argentina’s captain, Magali Agustina Alfredi (96) and Germany’s Carolin Hübner.

According to the handball statistics supplied to the IHF by Toma-soft ltd, Romania’s Ana Maria Cristea is the statistical goalkeeper MVP (146.60 points), although Netherlands’ Milou Olde Bolhaar has the best percentage of saves, standing at 49% in her five games. 

And her side are dominant at the other end, way ahead of the nearest top points’ scorers. The Dutch have scored 308 points (in 160 goals), averaging 513 per game (six played), ahead of Germany (272/45.3) in second.

They do not have the best defence though – that is Spain, just. They have conceded 157 in six games, compared to Netherlands’ 158, both around 26 average per game.

Brazil and Spain try the most in-flights, Brazil scoring the most – 38, compared to Spain’s 37.