The two remaining eighth-finals of the Women’s World Championship on Sunday (15 December) turned into real thrillers. Finally Poland (against Romania) and Denmark) against European champions Montenegro) secured the qualification for the quarter-finals on Wednesday (18 December) in Novi Sad.

Poland will face France in the round of the best eight teams, Denmark compete in their quarter-final against Germany

Eighth-finals, day 1:

In Belgrade: Denmark – Montenegro 22:21 (11:12)

What a thriller, what a tension, what a Danish celebration: The young team of coach Jan Pytlick eliminated European champions and Olympic silver medallist after a brave and emotional fight in the eighth-finals. Like in 2011, when they lost their first knock-out match against Spain. The Balkan team missed the round of the best eight teams.

The whole match was on full eye level though the European champions were in lead most of the first halftime with one exception - the 9:8 for Denmark. While Montenegro initially counted on their back court snipers Katarina Bulatovic and Milena Knezevic, the Danes were backed by the overall 15 saves of goalkeeper Cecilie Greve.

Both teams fought hard for every centimeter, and no rival could manage to forge ahead to more than a one goal distance in the first 30 minutes. Marija Jovanovic stroke for the halftime result (12:11) with the final buzzer, but in this action her team mate Radmila Petrovic took a serious ankle injury, she could not play anymore.

The match remained on the edge after the break – first Montenegro took their first ever two goal lead at 13:11 by the fifth Bulatovic (best scorer by seven goals) strike, then Denmark turned the roller coaster around after the 15:15 to be ahead by 18:16 and a triple strike. And when the outstanding Louise Katharina Burgaard hit the net by another of her needle-pin counter-attacks for 20:18, the European champions were shaken.

Their coach Dragan Adzic took a time-out, especially to re-organize his attack, as the Montenegrin players lacked ideas to get through the Danish defence, still backed by brilliant Greve.

First Adzic’s team understood, making their hundreds of fans in Belgrade go crazy when equalizing at 20:20. But in the end it was Burgaard (best Danish scorer by six goals) to decide the match by the 22:21. In Montenegro’s last attack in Serbia, Bulatovic shot hit the goal, but the buzzer had already sounded.

Statements after the match:

Jan Pytlick, Denmark coach: “I am very satisfied with the victory and I think it was a very tough match. We stood very well in defence today and that was the key to victory. In my opinion, we were quicker than Montenegro and that was also essential.”

Mette Bjorholm Gravholt, Denmark player: “We believed from the very start that we could win and I think it showed in our performance. We played great defence, tackled a lot and were much better in counter-attacking, while we were also more direct than Montenegro in attack.”

Dragan Adzic, Montenegro coach: “I want to congratulate Denmark for an outstanding performance and this is surely a memorable victory for them. I am sad that we have made an early exit from the World Championship but I am also proud of these girls, nonetheless. They have done so much for Montenegrin sport and the country in general, hence they can leave the Belgrade Arena with their heads high. We left it all out there on the court but it wasn’t enough against an excellent Danish team and I wish them luck in the rest of the tournament.”

Ana Djokic, Montenegro player: “Denmark were the better team while we were really below par. It is disappointing to exit the tournament at this stage because we deserved so much more, but sport can be like that sometimes and we can’t complain because we were not the best team tonight. Congratulations to Denmark and I wish them luck in the rest of the tournament.

Marija Jovanovic, Montenegro captain: Denmark are a very good team and they outplayed us tonight, but I am still shocked with our early exit from the World Championship. Having just one or two players doing well in attack is not enough to win the game. We lacked creativity in front of goal and too many of us failed to contribute in attack. We now hope that Radmila Petrovic recovers as quickly as possible from her ankle injury but it can’t be an excuse for our poor performance. We were a bit unlucky with the last shot on the buzzer, but you have to earn your luck and we didn’t earn ours this evening.

In Novi Sad: Poland – Romania 31:29 (13:17)

After 60 great minutes Poland made it to the quarter-final. Romania did not fulfill their favourite role much to the displeasure of several hundred Romanian fans, who supported their team during the entire match. Poland are now looking forward to their quarter-final against France on Wednesday.

The initial stage was balanced. Poland took the better start but did not make it to a bigger advance than one goal. It took the Romanian nine minutes to gain their first lead (5:4). The match surged back and forth during this exciting opening period. Both teams played highly concentrated and took their chances consequently to an 7:7 draw.

Especially Cristina Neagu imprinted this period and she was the one to secure the first four goal lead at 11:7, which remained until the break. And her team even forged ahead to 20:15 after 34 minutes. But again Poland stroke back and reduced the backlog several times to three goals like at 20:23 or 22:25. And still the pace of the match was on a high level. The Polish resistance had not been broken, in contrast: The team of Danish born coach Kim Rasmussen equalized at 26:26 and then turned the roller coaster around by forging ahead to a pre-decisive 29:26 after 57 minutes. Romania seemed to have lost all their power. And when Alina Wojtas scored for 30:27, the match was decided.

Best scorer of the Romanian team was Cristina Neagu by ten goals. Alina Wojtas netted nine times for Poland.

Statements after the match:

Kim Rasmussen, coach Poland: It was an extremely hard game. It must have been very exciting to watch. Romania is a world class team and Neagu made it impossible for us to defend in a good way during the first 45 minutes. This is a huge step for Polish handball. I have no more words. I am happy.

Alina Wojtas, player Poland: It was a fight from the first to the last minute. Now I wish that this was not the last match for our team. 

Gheorghe Tadici, coach Romania: In opposite to us the Polish team fought until the end. They turned the match completely around during the second half. We had problems in attack and also our defence did not have not such a good day.

Luciana Marin, player Romania: I apologize for the performance of my team to our fans and the coach. I am not happy with what we played today.