The final decisions in the groups B, C and D had been taken: Denmark (by beating Croatia), Sweden (by winning against Poland) and Iceland (by beating Norway) are the winners of the groups B, C and D. Iceland and Denmark start the Main Round with the optimum of 4:0 points, as Sweden arose like Phoenix from ashes.

Group B:

Iceland – Norway  29:22 (12:12)

Nordic duel on highest level with great audience: More than 6000 spectators attended this decisive game. And by beating Norway, the team from Iceland go to the Main Round with the optimum of 4:0 points, as the other Vikings start with 0:4. After the 3:0 for the Icelandic team it took some time, before Norway found their pace and equalized at the score of 9:9. And this equality remained until the break, when the score was 12:12 after an intense match play. Again Iceland had the better start and extended the gap to 15:12. And even as Norway improved again Iceland was the better team – and ten minutes before the end a three goal lead was secured by counter attack. When Olafur Stefansson scored the 24:19 the resistance of the Norwegians had been broken.

 
Group C:

Croatia – Denmark (16:15)

Denmark crowned themselves as the group winner attended by their enthusiastic Crown Prince Frederic. And they taught Croatia a real lesson in modern handball after the break in this top duel and re-match of the EURO final 2008. The spectators turned the Malmö Arena to a Party Arena.  Thanks to their fifth victory the Danes go on to the Main Round with the optimum of 4:0 points, Croatia start with 1:3. The whole Arena was a sea of red and white – as both teams have the same colours. But there was a clear majority for the Danes, as more than 10.000 of the 11.000 spectators had crosses the Öresund to their neighbor country. Despite this clear situation on the stands the first half was on highest but closest level. As Denmark count on the goals of outstanding left back Mikkel Hansen, the Croats showed a strong performance from the wing positions. As Ivano Balic was defended absolute intensively he couldn’t give his esprit to the Croatians like before. But pivot Igor Vori found his way through the Danish defense that stood better than the Croatians who couldn’t stop the Danish back court players. The game was absolute equal, no team could extend the lead to more than one goal in the first half. So the Croats took a close 13:12 to the dressing and nothing was decided at the break. But then the Croatian attack became weaker, as they lacked ideas to enter the Danish fortress. As the Balkan team only shot from individual actions and not by team play the Danes took the lead with two goals for the first time – and even increased it, cheered by standing ovations of the spectators to 25:21 in minute 45 when the Croat coach Slavko Goluza pulled the emergency brake by his time-out card.  But as Niklas Landin won the goalkeeper’s duel clearly the Croats couldn’t catch up. In contrast: By playing very hectic in attack their shot efficiency decreased further on – and Denmark overran them. By his ninth goal Hansen scored the 29:24 then Kasper Sondergaard continued with his ninth goal and the score of 31:24. At least the match was decided at the score of 32:26 four minutes before the end.  Top scorers were Sondergaard (10) and Vedran Zrnic with eight goals for Croatia.

Group D:

Sweden – Poland 21:24 (12:14)

Sweden is back on track – and start the Main Round with the same number of points (2:2) as Poland, so both teams still can hope for the semi-finals after this direct duel. After their surprising and disappointing defeat against Argentina, Sweden needed a victory urgently to keep their hopes for the semi finals alive. And the WCh host played completely different against the Poles. Building on a strong defense including goalkeeper Johan Sjöstrand they stopped the Polish and started their fast counter attack match play. The Scandinavium in Gothenburg went crazy when the distance was four goals for the first time at the score of 10:6. But by taking his time-out the Polish coach Bogdan Wenta took the right decision. His team improved and by a series of 4:0 goals they equalized thanks to strong Marcin Lijewski. The consequence:  a Swedish time-out. And right after the Swedes had found their track again and took a close two goal lead to the break.  And as Sjöstrand remained in World class form and the Swedish defense stood like a wall, this close distance held until the very end, even as the Polish were always close to turn the game. But the Swedes showed great resistance to the Polish power. Even as World handball Player Slawomir Szmal saved a huge number of shots the WCh host celebrated in the end.

Photos by Axel Heimken & Sascha Klahn