After 54 matches, there are just two games left in the women’s tournament of the 2016 IHF Beach Handball World Championship

All games will be played on Court 1.

Watch live streams for free and keep up-to-date with all the results on the official tournament website: www.beachhandball2016.com.

Sunday 17 July
Final – Brazil vs Spain, 18:00 hrs (local time)

It is impossible to understate the strength and dominance of the Brazil women’s team in beach handball.

Outside of the medals in just one of the six editions since the world championships started, Brazil enter the 2016 final having been champions for four years, thanks to consecutive gold medals at Oman 2012 and Recife in 2014.

Led by Rossana Marques, the Brazilian women, if they defend their title for the second time, can ensure that the spiritual home of beach handball can capitalise on the interest in Brazilian handball which will come with the imminent 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.
Brazil have been impressive at Budapest 2016, and like Recife 2014 have only dropped one period to date. That was against home side Hungary, but they prevailed in the penalties to ensure their perfect record.

Uruguay, Chinese Taipei, Tunisia, Poland, Norway, Hungary (twice) and Italy have been dispatched, as have Spain, who were beaten 2-0 in their main round match yesterday 2-0.

Renata Santiago was dominant, with the pivot scoring 14 points to ensure that Spain have their work cut out against a team in near-perfect form.

Spain can take solace from the fact that they have beaten Brazil once before in a world championship and their wins over Argentina, Australia, Italy, Hungary, Thailand, Norway and Chinese Taipei have gone under the radar a little.

A 2-1 loss against Norway was a small bump in the road and as a squad, Spain are strong and ready for the test.

Brazil have scored 365 points to sit top of the points scored chart, Spain are in third with 316. Brazil feature at number 10 in the top scorers chart with Renata Santiago scoring 39 goals, scoring 78 points in the process, but it highlights the strength of the squad that Brazil have four players in the top 30 goalscorers. 

However, Spain, with Jennifer Gutierrez (83 points) in seventh place, also spread the goalscoring around as she is joined along with three other teammates in the top 30.

3/4 (Bronze) Placement Match – Hungary vs Norway, 16:00 hrs (local time)

While both teams will be disappointed to not be in the final, there is still a medal to play for and a World Games spot  as Brazil and Spain are already qualified for Poland 2017.

That is reward enough for two teams who have played each other five times in a world championship, with Norway winning four, most recently on Friday in a game which went to penalty shot as Norway won 5:2. However, their loss against Poland on penalties in the group stages will continue to haunt them. This loss and that against Brazil were the only defeats for the Scandinavians.

Hungary have had inconsistent form which ultimately cost them a chance to play for gold. Wins against Thailand, Argentina, Australia, Italy and Chinese Taipei have been accompanied by losses against Brazil (twice), Norway and Spain.

Norway can boast the tournament top scorer Martine Welfler with 90 points (47 goals) and Hungary can boast Renata Csiki, just two places behind in third with 87 points (44 goals).

In total Norway have scored 358 points to Hungary’s 316 points, but whatever the score is today, the home fans will be hoping that their side score at least one more in each period than the Norwegians.