Only four teams are still alive in the men’s handball competition at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. The group winners in the preliminary round, Germany and Denmark, are both through, and will face Spain and Slovenia respectively in do-or-die matches, which are expected to light up the Stade Pierre Mauroy in Lille.

While Denmark and Germany are both Olympic champions, neither Spain, nor Slovenia have ever featured in the final of the Olympics, but both sides will aim for a win, which would guarantee them a medal. 

Paris 2024 – men’s handball competition – semi-finals schedule

Friday, 9 August

• 16:30 CEST Germany vs Spain
   
• 21:30 CEST Slovenia vs Denmark

Germany aim return to Olympics final after 20 years: There is no doubt that playing in a competitive league like the German Bundesliga – with only one of the 17 players registered for the Olympics playing abroad last season, goalkeeper Andreas Wolff – helped Germany put together a side this good in so little time. 20 years ago, when they played their last final at the Olympics, the team still had Stefan Kretzschmar or Pascal Hens. Now, in the last matches, Germany relied on some fantastic exuberance from their young players – Renars Uscins and David Spath - who won the 2023 IHF Men’s Junior World Championship last summer. But this Germany team is more than that. They have the attacking strength to cause issues to any defence. They play with heart, as shown in the quarter-final against France, when they erased a two-goal deficit in the last 13 seconds of the match. Add some experience to that mix and Alfred Gislason has done a fantastic job with a group of players which finished 12th at the 2021 IHF Men’s World Championship and sixth at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. The question is whether they can make the step further. Losing only one match here, at Paris 2024, makes them small favourites in this match, but in a do-or-die clash, anything can happen.

First final for “Los Hispanos”? Spain reached the semi-finals of the Olympics four times – at Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000, Beijing 2008 and Tokyo 2020. Each time, they lost – twice against Sweden and once against Iceland and Denmark. Now, Jordi Ribera’s side will aim for their maiden win in five tries, which would see Spain in the Olympics final for the first time in history. This time around, “Los Hispanos” have not been as dominating, needing to hold on against Croatia in the last match of the preliminary round and an extra-time win against Egypt in the quarter-finals, but they lost the same number of matches like at Tokyo 2020 and at Atlanta 1996 – two – on their way to the semi-finals. However, the two sides met at Paris 2024 in the preliminary round and Germany won a close match, 33:31, and in the women’s competition at these Olympics, when two teams met both in the semis and in the preliminary round, the same team won twice. But Spain have four wins in the last six matches at major international competitions, therefore knowing what it takes to win against Germany.

Denmark, with another step to making history: In recent history, only one team has won the Olympic title without dropping any of the matches played, that team being Croatia at Athens 2004. 20 years later, Denmark are set on the same path, having a six-match winning streak entering the semi-final against Slovenia, with their closest encounter coming in the previous match, when they eliminated Sweden, 32:31. Denmark also have the joint best attack in the competition, with 197 goals, the same number as Germany, being a tough team to stop. In fact, they have scored at least 30 goals in five of the six matches so far, stopping short against Hungary, when they had 28 goals. A team and a generation full of superlatives is ready to deliver yet another fantastic performance, and qualify for their third consecutive final at the Olympics. In fact, Denmark have a 100% record in Olympic semi-finals, winning both at Rio 2016 and at Tokyo 2020.

Can Slovenia beat Denmark twice in 2024? Slovenia secured four wins so far at Paris 2024, half the number they previously had in their first three appearances. They are in the semi-finals for the first time and are eager to prove their worth against the reigning world champions Denmark, a team which lost only seven of their 57 matches in the last seven major international competitions. One of those seven losses came this January at the EHF EURO 2024 against Slovenia, which took a 28:25 win, in a match which Denmark afforded to lose, as they were already through. Since 2000, Slovenia and Denmark faced off eight time, with Denmark taking six wins, but in an Olympic semi-final, especially the first for one of the teams, anything can happen.

Battle for top goal scorer title heats up: At one point, after four matches, when Mathias Gidsel had scored 40 goals, it seemed like he was going to beat Mikkel Hansen’s record of 61 goals in a single edition of the Olympic Games. Gidsel slowed down since that moment, scoring only seven goals more, and even not the top goal scorer title looks so sure now, with the right back being chased by Slovenia’s Aleks Vlah (46 goals), teammate Simon Pytlick (44 goals) and Germany’s Renars Uscins (42 goals). Gidsel has already improved his output at the Olympics to 93 goals overall, needing only seven goals to hit the 100-goal tally in only two editions.