Some say, it is the proleptic final, as the two top nations of the last years in this age category already face in the semi of the Women’s Junior World Championship in Croatia on Friday (18:30 hrs.local time, live stream on www.ihf.info): Russia and Denmark.  

In the 2012, the current Danish team jumped into the hotel pool in Bar, Montenegro, after beating the Russian girls in a highly thrilling final of the Youth World Championship to win gold, one year later Russia stroke back, defeating the Danish girls on their home ground in the semi-final of the U19 European championship to later-on become European champions. Now they face again in a crucial encounter in Koprivnica - and proved their skills, abilities and ambitions in the previous matches of this competition - both sides are the only teams with a clean record of seven victories in seven matches.

Denmark and Russia had won their groups, Denmark and Russia left their competitors absolutely chanceless behind in their respective knock-out stage matches: The Danes first beat the Czechs in the eighth-finals by 37:23 and continued their winning spree with a 36:26 in the one-sided quarter-final against France. The Russians first overran defending Junior World Champions Sweden by 31:18 and then clashed the Netherlands in the quarter-final by 43:33. Russia have the clearly better attack by now after scoring 254 goals in seven matches (number 1 of all 24 participants), compared to Denmark (220). In terms of defence, the Danes have a little advance, after conceding only 162 goals compared to 166 of the Russians.

Both teams nearly count on the same tactics: Strong defence and goalkeeping and then trying to grab the chances by counter-attacks. Additionally both have tall back court shooters, successful options for long distance shots.

“We did not expect this clear result against France, but this match - mainly the first half - has significantly proved the general improvement of our team during this tournament,” Danish head coach Heine Eriksen praises his players: “They are getting better and better.” To reach the semi-final was the main goal of the Danes, but now they want more, though they know the strength of their competitor: “Of course we are aiming to win,” Eriksen added: “Compared to previous Danish junior teams, this time we have tall players with great skills to shoot from the back court.”

Currently best scorer of the Danes is Nadia Offendal by 36 goals, but the statistic shows that all court players are in the scorers list and thus Eriksen can count on a huge rotation in his squad.

In contrast to the well-balanced Danes, Russia have a truly world star in their team: Anna Vyakhireva, already awarded twice as Most Valuable Player at major younger age category tournaments and currently best scorer of the Russian team by 36 goals. The left handed can either play on the right wing or right back position - and is unstoppable.

But it is not only Vyakhireva, but the general performance of the team, which makes Russian coach Vjatscheslav Kirilenko feel highly confident: “I do not think that any team can beat us in this competition,” he said right after reaching the semi-final. Kirilenko is a master of rotation: “All players need to gain experience, all players need to be on court, all players need to be on one level, no matter if they are in the first or the second row of our squad.” And without doubts Kirilenko explains the overall goal of his team: “We came to Croatia to win the gold medal.” And Kirilenko adapted his tough training methods to the conditions in Croatia: “As the training hall is quite far away, we do some training sessions in the forest around our hotel. Not only running, but also tactical training.”

In the history of Women’s Junior World Championships Russia and its predecessor Soviet Union are the clear number 1 in terms of medals and trophies: Seven consecutive times from 1979 to 1991 the Soviets were World Champions in this age category, followed by four Russian titles in 1993, 2001, 2003 and 2005. In 2010 they lost the final against Norway to win their overall third silver medal.

In contrast the Danes have only once been Women’s Junior World Champions, in 1997 - by beating Russia in the final at Ivory Coast. In 1985, 1995 and 2008 they reached the finals and finally took the silver medal, adding two bronze medals (1991, 1999) to their cabinet of silver ware.