Denmark vs. Spain

The constellation is a new edition of the final from the IV Men’s Youth World Championship in Argentina two years before. But now both teams meet already in the semi-final. Denmark won the match in 2011, perhaps a good sign for the Scandinavians. But the Spaniards do not believe to forecasts, but trust their own quality. With this mental strength the talents from the Spanish Handball Federation won their quarterfinal against the team from Serbia and they won the match, although they were behind almost 60 minutes long. The defending champion runs through the tournament like a hot knife through butter. Denmark overran Romania in the eighth-final and Norway one round later as well. Nobody could stop the Danish express on its way to the title so far. In all the matches the boys of head coach Claus Hansen worked nearly perfect and showed a great performance. So, Denmark is the favourite. But attention: Denmark was the favourite in the final of the Men’s World Championship at the beginning of the year against host Spain too – and everyone knows how it went out…

Croatia vs. Germany 

At men’s handball, this match is a classic. But even in this tournament, this semi-final promises to be exciting. Germany is unbeaten in all seven matches so far. Croatia lost only against Spain in the preliminary round. But the performance of the Croatians in the eight-final against Austria and especially in the second half of the quarter final against Sweden was brilliant. The team demonstrated different options in defence, so that Sweden found no way to attack the goal of the East European team with success. And the technical standard of the team is so high, that they make only few mistakes in their typical style of play. Perhaps, the Youth World Champion from 2009 is the favourite in this semi-final. On the other hand: Germany is the European Champion, won all matches in the tournament before and presented itself in a really good shape. The Germans played as a real team as well, head coach Christian Schwarzer made a good job and the German boys acted in the extra time in the quarterfinal against Slovenia without showing a sign of nervousness. Besides, the defence of the talents from the German Handball Federation worked like a machine in the matches before. If they could win, for the Germans it will be the first final in a World Championship tournament in this age category ever. Croatia won the Championship in 2009 and lost the final two years before in 2007 against Denmark.