The first men’s quarter-final at Rio 2016 finished with a seven-goal win for France, who ended Brazil’s dream of a medal at their home Olympic Games. Their result at Rio 2016 will nevertheless be the highest-ever ranking for the Pan American team, who have never finished above 10th.

“Thanks to all the people who came to cheer for us,” said Rio de Janeiro-born Joao Silva after the game. “I wish all this can continue and handball can be seen in Brazil as a sport that can make people happy.”

In the second quarter-final European champions Germany followed France’s example, recording an even bigger victory to eliminate 2015 IHF World Championship silver medallists Qatar. 

Still to come in the men’s quarter-finals, Denmark play Slovenia, and Croatia take on Poland. 

Future Arena, Wednesday 17 August
Quarter-final: Brazil vs France 27:34 (16:16)

Brazil started the match a little slowly while France raced out of the blocks – particularly left wing Michael Guigou, who scored a range of shots to accumulate four of the European side’s first five goals. When he converted a penalty in the sixth France took an early lead at 5:2, before Brazil fought back to decrease the score line. Captain Thiagus Santos caused a turnover and ran a fast break in partnership with Fabio Chiuffa to equalise at 5:5 in the eighth, and after that it was a one for one game. 

Jose Guilherme Toledo scored to take the hosts one in front at 7:6, and just past the 10th minute Maik Santos made a penalty save against Guigou to keep the one-goal lead for Brazil. Midway through the half the game remained level at 8:8, as France had to be creative to find their way through Brazil’s active defence. 

Each team also had to work hard to find the goal behind the other’s keeper, with Thierry Omeyer standing in the goal opposite Santos, as both recorded a 33% save rate when Nikola Karabatic scored his first goal of the match to give France a narrow lead at 11:10 in the 19th. Karabatic’s goal was answered by Andre Soares from left wing, but after that two consecutive goals were scored by the two-time World Handball Player of the Year, taking France ahead to 13:11 in the 21st. 

The two-goal distance persisted to the dying minutes of the half, until Santos made a run of saves that helped Brazil keep France under control while they closed the gap back to one thanks to Toledo, then levelled with a goal from Santos at 15:15 in the 28th. The score stayed equal at half-time, but in the second half Les Experts strength would really begin to show. 

“We knew the good qualities of the French team. They are twice Olympic champions and world champions,” said Silva following the match. “We knew we had to be well focused to play our game. Little by little we build our game, but in the second half we didn’t have good luck with some balls and we also missed some.”

Brazil took the lead through the opening minutes of the second period with another sequence from Toledo then Santos, which put the score at 18:17 in the 32nd. They stayed in front at 21:20 in the 37th, before France took full control of the game. 

After the score stood level at 22:22 just before the 40-minute mark France recorded a 4:0 run that took them to 26:22 with 15 minutes on the clock. The world and Olympic champions stormed through the last quarter of the match adding goal after goal, while Brazil missed their shots or had them saved by Vincent Gerard, who came in to replace Omeyer early in the half. 

The final whistle showed a seven-goal lead for France, after which right wing Luc Abalo identified one of the crucial factors in their win as the depth in their squad:

“They don’t have any weaknesses, but they rotate less than we do. We have more players who can enter when it’s a tight and difficult game.”

France are therefore the first men’s team through to the semi-finals and await confirmation of their opponents for that stage. 

Quarter-final: Germany vs Qatar 34:22 (16:12)

The tone for the match was set early when Germany scored the first two goals, thanks to Fabian Wiede and Henrik Pekeler, and Andreas Wolff saved the opening shot off Rafael Capote. After that Bertrand Roine added Qatar’s first, and when Capote succeeded in his next long-range shot they closed the gap to 2:3 just before the clock hit five minutes.

After Qatar briefly took a one-goal lead, two consecutive fast breaks from right wing Tobias Reichmann earned Germany back the advantage at 5:4 in the 12th, and they retained a one-goal lead as Uwe Gensheimer scored a penalty after a two-minute suspension for Alrayes in the 13th. During Alrayes’ time on the bench Germany moved in front with two goals in a row from Julius Kuhn, creating a difference at 8:6 midway through the half. 

Zarko Markovic scored a penalty against Wolff and it was he who set up Capote to score on an outstanding jump shot in the 17th, levelling the game once more at 8:8. But from that point the European champions began to create a real difference, with four straight goals from different positions scored over five minutes as Markovic hit the post and Wolff made three consecutive saves. When Germany hit a 12:8 lead Qatar coach Valero Rivera called his first time-out, but on this day, his team simply were not on the same level as the European champions. 

The only thing that helped Qatar were the saves of Saric, who was on a 31% rate at the end of the first 25 minutes – though as Wolff recorded 41% at the other end and played behind stronger defence, Germany were able to keep their advantage at 13:10 as Gensheimer scored his third in the 27th. Even with Pekeler off for two minutes the European side retained the advantage, and at the half-time break the difference stood at four in favour of Germany. 

"Maybe we were a little stronger in the beginning, but we knew Qatar would have problems finding the power in the second half and we played good," said Germany coach Dagur Sigurdsson after the match. "We used our big guys for the defence, and young, fast smaller ones for the attack. We were playing fast handball. It was difficult for Qatar. We deserved to win."

When the match resumed Germany wasted little time moving further in front, with Wolff making an impressive save on a penalty against Markovic in the 32nd to keep the four-goal difference. Five minutes into the period Germany had increased their lead to six at 20:14, and they kept the same difference with 15 minutes left as Qatar right wing Nasreddine Megdich missed a shot when he attempted to lob 198-centremetre tall Wolff (24:18). 

As the last 10 minutes of the match began Bertrand Roine added his second gaol to put the score at 19:29, but as Germany were in front by 10 goals it was clear the match was decided. Wolff was substituted off to bring in Silvio Heinevetter, taking a 41% save rate for the match with him, and Germany easily held on to record a 12-goal victory that booked them a semi-final berth against France. 

"They are a really good team. There are just some days when nothing is working. I think today was that day for Qatar," said Germany's Fin Lemke. "We had a really good day, that's why it was such an easy match."