Both Northern European neighbours have reached the WCh semifinals after the second Match Day of the Main Round: After Sweden had beaten Croatia, Denmark took both points against Argentina. For Denmark it was the seventh victory in the seventh match – and now it’s decided that no other team can overtake Sweden anymore. Both semi-finalists will meet on Tuesday for the group winner – and a draw is enough for Denmark to remain on top. No matter what team will win the group the Danes play their semi in Kristianstad and Sweden in Malmö.

Group II:

Poland – Serbia 27:26 (10:11)

Poland and Croatia play for the places three and four in group II in the direct duel on Tuesday: After Croatia had lost against Sweden and have 3:5 points, Poland took the chance to overtake them by beating Serbia in a real thriller and have 4:4 points now. Both defense sides nearly neutralized themselves in the whole 60 minutes. The attack players of both teams could come through in the first half, so the spectators in Lund only saw 21 goals. After Poland was in lead the Serbs caught up and took the lead – but couldn’t extend it to more than two goals and nothing was decided at the break. When Marco Vujin scored his seventh individual goal to 11:10 for the Serbs the Poles took the game more serious, stopped Vujin and turned the game. Thanks to some wing goals of Mariusz Jurasik Poland went away to 17:13 in minute 40 and 20:15 in minute 42. A time-out and a goalkeeper change then brought new faith to the Serbs, who scored five straight goals and equalized at the score of 20:20.  And the rest was absolute tension: The lead changed constantly in the last minutes, after the 24:23 for Poland Serbia scored twice the Poland equalized again to 26:26. Serbia was in ball possession 25 seconds before the end, but lost the ball. Polish coach Bogdan Wenta took his time-out – and five seconds before the end Karol Bielecki scored the winning goal to 27:26.

Argentina – Denmark 24:31 (12:17)

Denmark intermediately was close to a defeat, but in the end the team in red and white secured their straight seventh victory, which meant the qualification for the semi-final with 8:0 points. But Argentina was a much stronger opponent the Danes had expected – in the middle of the second half the game was close to turn – and then the saves of goalkeeper Niklas Landin brought the Danes back on the winner’s way.  The Danish coach Ulrik Wilbek had changed his team in contrast to the victory against Poland, but even his substitute players on the wing position fit well: Lasse Svan Hansen and Anders Eggert started brilliant and were the key factors for the Danish 10:5 lead in minute 14. But then the Gauchos woke up, found their rhythm and decreased the distance to 10:13 thanks to their powerful attack players. But as the Argentine team played too high risk in the last stage of the first half, the Danes were leading with a five goal distance at the break. After they scored the 19:12 the Danes decelerated completely, missed too many chances and caused a lot of unforced mistakes. Argentina took the profit and reduced the distance to 17:21 thanks to their offensive defense and several counter attacks. Still no reaction on the Danish side, but suddenly it was 22:24, when coach Wilbek changed his goalkeeper from Sörensen to Landin. But the Danes had lost their pace completely, as Argentina played with full power and concentration. The Gauchos had several chances to reduce to only one goal, but missed them. Two lost Argentine balls then gave Denmark new air to breath, as they scored twice by counter attack to 27:23 seven minutes before the end. And the Danes could really be lucky to have “survived” this crucial period thanks to the decisive saves of Niklas Landin. When Mikkel Hansen scored the 29:23 (his seventh individual goal) the last resistance of the Southern Americans was broken. Top scorer was Hansen (seven goals for Denmark), three Argentines scored each three times.

Photos by Axel Heimken