Spain claimed 17th place at the 2018 IHF Women’s Junior (U20) World Championship when they defeated Portugal in the President’s Cup final, while People’s Republic of China beat Paraguay to record their first win at Hungary 2018. In the first match on Wednesday, Angola won their clash with Chile.

Portugal therefore finish 18th behind Spain, Angola are 19th, Chile place 20th, P.R. of China rank 21st and Paraguay are 22nd.

17/18 placement match: Portugal vs Spain 28:32 (13:14)
Last time these sides met was in the qualification stage for the Junior World Championship, with Portugal claiming the win by three goals. This time, it was Spain’s turn to take the victory, with a similar margin.

Spain had the upper hand as they could rely on far more players than Portugal. At the final whistle, only two of Spain’s field players had not contributed to their 32-goal tally, and every member of the squad had stepped on the court. The top scorer of the game was Seynabou Mbengue, with a total of eight goals and just one missed shot.

After Portugal held the lead at 11:9 in the 20th minute, Spain finished the half stronger to earn a one-goal advantage before the break. Portugal temporarily reclaimed the lead in the opening minutes of the second period, and it was at that point that Mbengue took charge of the Spanish onslaught in attack. Scoring six of her eight goals in the second period, Mbengue led Spain to a clear lead at 28:22 as the final 10 minutes began. Portugal managed to close the gap, but it was too late to come back from such a deficit, and Spain were the team to celebrate at the whistle.

19/20 placement match: Chile vs Angola 22:27 (9:13)
Angola were immediately the dominant side in the opening match of the day in Hall Fonix, creating a 7:4 advantage by the end of the first quarter of the game and adding another to the score line before half-time. Leading her team with seven goals during their final 60 minutes on court at Hungary 2018, Angola’s Helena Paulo – the top scorer of the 2018 IHF Women’s Junior World Championship up to this point – moved her total up to 73.

Chile showed their sharp improvement during Hungary 2018 by keeping Angola within reach as the match progressed, fighting back from a deficit as clear as eight in the 46th minute (17:25) to 22:25 in the 57th. But Angola scored the final goals in the last minutes to secure the victory in the end.

21/22 placement match: China vs Paraguay 38:35 (19:19)
A day's rest may have helped China to just have enough to edge Paraguay in a game short on defence but full of goals.

73 goals is the highest amount of goals in a game at Hungary 2018 to date, beating the 72 (47:25) scored by Netherlands in their opening Preliminary Group C win against Paraguay and 70 in Germany's demolition of Egypt (51:19) in Preliminary Group D.

After a first-half in which the two teams traded blows, it was apt that it ended even (19:19), despite China pushing up Keke Wang and Yu Yuan on to the attacking threat of Mara Fernandez and Camila Feschenko in the closing moments.

Wang and Mengxue Zhou (nine goals each) continued their goalscoring for the Chinese into the second half and their side eventually took the reins. Along with Yin Yang, the attacking pair helped with a 12:4 opening 15 minutes in the second period (31:23) which killed the game until a brief 4:0 run at the end from the South Americans, but it proved too little too late as Paraguay had to settle for 22nd place in their debut junior world championship.