Three of the four nations that made it to the medal round at the 2018 IHF Women’s Junior (U20) World Championship in July have reached the semi-finals at the 2018 IHF Women’s Youth World Championship. Hungary have the chance to celebrate their second World Championship title of the summer, while Republic of Korea could collect a second medal and Russia have the opportunity to make up for the disappointment of missing a podium finish at Hungary 2018.

The fourth Poland 2018 semi-finalist is another Scandinavian nation, after Norway made it to the final at Hungary 2018: Sweden.

Th semi-finals will see Hungary take on Asian champions Republic of Korea in what is expected to be a thrilling game, before Sweden face defending champions Russia. Both semi-finals will be played in Hall Legionow, Kielce and streamed live here.

 

Semi-final: Hungary vs Republic of Korea – Saturday August 18, 17:30 local time

Hungary have made history by reaching the semi-finals, as their previous best result at the Women’s Youth World Championship was fifth, achieved in both 2016 and 2012. On their other two participations, Hungary ranked 11th (in 2010) and 15th (2014). Though it is already an historic result, Hungary are far from satisfied with only the top four, as the powerful squad entered the competition with high expectations.

As winners of the bronze medal at the European championship last summer and gold at the European Youth Olympic Festival, Hungary were marked as one of the favoured squads from the beginning of Poland 2018. They arrive at the semi-finals with only victories in their record, including the two most decisive knock-out round wins – 36:22 in the eighth-final versus Austria, and 33:0 in the quarter-final against Spain. The team appear unstoppable, particularly after their showing in the quarter-final, where they played their best game yet and cruised to a one-sided victory.

“In the first half we were searching for the weak points of Spain and we found them. We didn’t leave a lot of space between our defenders, we had a good goalkeeper and we used fast breaks,” said Hungary assistant coach Peter Woth. “We are happy about reaching the best four teams of the world, but we are athletes, so we still want to win each next game.”

Republic of Korea are more experienced in this stage of the Youth World Championship than their semi-final opponents, having won the bronze medal at the previous edition in Slovakia in 2016, and placing second in the maiden event in 2006. In fact, Korea have never ranked outside the top 10 at the Women’s Youth World Championship.

Korea also bring a perfect record into the semi-finals, after topping Group D then beating Japan in their eighth-final. Their quarter-final was the closest of all, as they defeated European champions Germany by one goal scored in the last seconds.

“This was our best game at this championship. The Germans are very tall, so we needed to use our counter attacks to score. Our players are very strong and that was useful to fight against such good players,” said Korea coach Seong Ok Oh following the match.

Both teams will take the court confident after their impressive – though very different – victories in the quarter-finals. But there can only be one winner and this semi-final promises an interesting contest.

 

Semi-final: Sweden vs Russia – Saturday August 18, 20:00 local time

Russia are the third semi-finalist with a perfect record at Poland 2018, while Sweden are something of a surprise in the penultimate stage. The Scandinavian reached the eighth-finals after placing fourth in Group B, thanks to wins over Chile and Egypt.

Sweden took the court for their eighth-final against Romania, expected to face a difficult challenge, and the half-time score of 10:15 against them agreed with the odds. However, the Scandinavian side pulled off a great comeback in the second period, keeping Romania to just five goals while pulling in front to take a 22:20 win at the final whistle. In the quarter-final, Sweden defeated the Netherlands by 10 goals, and now appear to be a dangerous dark horse with a squad that is only gaining confidence as they progress.

“I think we played great defensively. We allowed the Dutch team to throw only 17 goals. We fought very, very hard to push the players from the Netherlands from the throwing position, thanks to which we could use counter attacks and score goals,” said Sweden coach Niklas Harris following the game.

Sweden’s defence will clearly be one of their biggest weapons in the match against the defending champions, considering neither Romania nor the Netherlands could score more than 20 goals against them. However, Russia are a formidable side with a great defensive line-up of their own, supported by the top-ranked goalkeeper at Poland 2018, Anna Vereshchak (76 saves at 48% in seven matches).

Russia have raced to the semi-finals with victory after victory. They beat Tunisia clearly in their eighth-final and won the quarter-final versus Denmark by four goals.

“It was our most difficult match so far,” said Russia coach Liubov Sidoricheva. “Our goalkeeper defended a lot. The girls caught a lot of good energy from her.”

Russia were tipped as a favourited to reach the podium from the start of the competition, and now face just one more step before the trophy match. Can they extend their perfect record, or will Sweden cause another upset?