Denmark claim bronze over Germany in high-level finish

For the second time in this tournament Denmark got the better of Germany. In the main round group the Danes celebrated a 33:28 win, but this victory on Sunday evening in Celje was even sweeter because it got them the medal.

It's a nice ending of the tournament for the Danes who were hoping to go all the way, but Spain stopped them in the semi-finals. Nevertheless, they restored their grit and hunger for the win, showed from the first minute.

BRONZE MEDAL MATCH

Germany vs Denmark 23:26 (11:15)

• despite only two saves from their goalkeepers in the first half, Denmark were leading almost the entire time. Their biggest lead was 15:10 in the final moments of the period
• Germany's goalkeeper Frederik Höler was absent due to illness, meaning Julian Buchele took all the responsibility between the posts and had a magnificent game with 15 saves (38 per cent success rate)
• in the first half Germany made as many as 10 technical faults and at one point went goalless for almost 10 minutes
• before the midway of the second half Germany restored parity (17:17) playing their usual rock solid defence, to which Denmark had no solutions for a while
• a 4-0 run by Denmark from 46th to 54th minute decided the winner, with their goalkeeper Malte Eichhorst playing a huge part (11 saves in the match)
• placement matches:
  5th place Austria - Sweden 26:34; 7th place Norway - Iceland 29:32
  9th place France - North Macedonia 29:30; 11th place Croatia - Hungary 29:20
  13th place Serbia - Poland 27:25; 15th place Romania - Slovenia 30:31
  17th place Faroe Islands - Switzerland 32:35; 19th place Italy - Czechia 33:35
  21th place Israel - Ukraine 32:24; 23th place Montenegro - Greece 32:35

Record-breaking medal for Denmark

This Danish generation is always up there, among the best. Two years ago at the Men's 18 EHF EURO they finished sixth and last year at the Men's IHF Youth World Championship they took silver, behind Spain.

Again Spain - who else - stopped them here in Celje in the semi-finals. It definitely left a scar on the Danish souls because the win was so close, but the hearts and minds of their players showed incredible fighting spirit and resilience. All of which can apply to the Germans as well, but tonight it was not meant to be for them.

Unlike the match against Spain, this time the Danes were the ones finishing in a strong and confident manner. This was their seventh medal in the history of this tournament, and Spain have secured their seventh as well. Along with four golds, the Danes have one silver and two bronzes.

As for Germans, they had a lot of experience trailing in matches during the tournament. By pushing hard and playing incredible defence, they amazingly recovered against Sweden to reach the semi-finals and almost turned it around versus Portugal. In this game they also came close, they even had a brief lead in the second half, but eventually they ran out of energy.

Even though Germany absolutely compliments for recovering a five-goal deficit, it was Denmark who were in charge during most of that match. Above all, when it mattered - in the last quarter of the match - they played on a very high level and thoroughly deserved the bronze medal.