Nanjing: All girls’ semi-finallists already confirmed

21 Aug. 2014

Nanjing: All girls’ semi-finallists already confirmed

After the completion of the second match day of the girls’ competition at the Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing all four semi-finallists are already confirmed: Russia and Korea in group A and Sweden and Brazil in group B. Angola and China will face twice on Sunday and Monday 24/25 August for the positions 5 and 6 after both had lost their respective second matches on Thursday (21 August).

The final day of the preliminary round in the girls’ tournament on Friday will decide the pairings of the semi-finals, as the victorious teams face in direct duels. Korea and Sweden only need draws to finish on the first position of their groups, while Russia and Brazil need to win. The semi-finals will be played on Sunday.

 
Girls’ tournament, group B:

Brazil - China 32:18 (14:6)

Initially China had recovered from the 14:39 defeat against Sweden the day before, but in the end they lacked power and concentration to reach a better result against the Pan-American champions. After a 7:2 start Brazil took the match more easier, as China played more efficient in attack - but without having a chance to endanger their competitor.

Sides were changed with an eight-goal advance for the juniors of the 2016 Olympic Games host, and as Brazil again had the clearly better start forging ahead to 19:8 the match was decided early, so the South Americans could save powers for the crucial duel with Sweden tomorrow. But despite the deceleration the final margin was increased to 14 goals. Best scorers were Xuelu Liu, scoring six times for the host China, and Costa Maia and Oliveira with five goals each for Brazil.