It is crunch time at the European Youth Olympic Festival 2022, where the last eight teams are left standing in the race for the titles in the handball competitions. The semi-finals in both the W17 and M17 competitions will take place on Friday, and the titles will be decided on Saturday.
In the men’s competition, Germany will take on Croatia and Denmark will play Portugal in the semi-finals. In the women’s competition, the semi-finals will see Hungary meet Norway and Germany play Denmark.
- European Youth Olympic Festival 2022 reaches medal-deciding phase, with semi-finals, finals and placement matches ahead, after group games during the week
- competition is taking place in Banská Bystrica, Slovakia, with handball featured as one of 10 sports in what is the biggest multi-sport event for European athletes aged 14 to 18
- Friday’s semi-finals schedule in the men’s competition: Denmark vs Portugal 18:30 CEST; Germany vs Croatia 20:30 CEST. See all results so far here
- women’s competition semi-finals, also on Friday: Germany vs Denmark 18:30 CEST; Hungary vs Norway 20:30 CEST. All results so far are available here
- finals to be played on Saturday. Placement games also taking place on Friday and Saturday
Denmark and Germany hoping for big weekend of success
With both their teams in the semi-finals, Denmark and Germany have the chance to take both the M17 and W17 titles. While neither of Denmark’s sides arrive at the medal round with a perfect record, Germany’s teams both won all their games in Slovakia so far.
In the women’s competition, Denmark qualified for the semi-finals as the second-placed team in group A, behind Hungary. While Hungary won all three of their matches and collected the maximum points, Denmark won two — against the other group opponents, Romania and Slovakia — and lost to Hungary. With their perfect record, Germany topped group B ahead of Norway, followed by Montenegro and Croatia. Just like in group A, the group B runners-up Norway lost only to the group winners, Germany.
In the men’s competition, Germany topped group A while Denmark placed first in group B. Germany boast a clean record of three wins in three games, having beaten all their group opponents — Portugal, Slovenia and Slovakia. Portugal placed second thanks to their four points gained from wins against Slovenia and Slovakia.
Playing in group B, Denmark and Croatia recorded the only draw in the competition. As Denmark combined that draw with two wins, beating Spain and Iceland, they collected five points to clinch first on the table. Croatia lost to Iceland but beat Spain, scraping into second in the close group with three points — one point ahead of both Spain and Iceland.
The top scorers in the competitions are Frederik Bak in the M17, with 21 goals scored for Denmark, while Montenegrin Elena Mitrovic leads the W17 scoring chart, with 26.
