There was also a surprise in the second semi-final of the European Championship in Croatia. Sweden defeated Denmark in the Zagreb arena 35:34 (28:28,16:14) after extra time, and in the final on Sunday (20:30) they beat Spain, who defeated France 27:23.
What Sweden offered in the first 20 minutes was partly magic handball. Coach Kristjan Andresson’s squad played at an incredibly high speed, scored outstanding counter-attacks, and even did a successful Kempa trick.
But the Danes also made it easy for the outsider. The goalkeeper Niklas Landin (1 out of 10) barely got a finger on the ball, which is why he was already in the 14th minute. Jannick Green in the last minute. Danish coach Nikolaj Jacobsen was also forced to take his second time-out after 20 minutes in a 10:14 deficit.
In between Sweden even led with 16:11, a 3:0-run finally brought the Olympic champion to 14:16 until halftime. Outstanding Swedish goalkeeper Andreas Palicka (20% out of 51.39%) nipped a Danish chase in the bud at the start of the second half. It took seven minutes for Mikkel Hansen to score the first goal of 15:19 by a seven-metre margin.
Denmark fought their way into the match, led by Germany’s referee team Lars Geipel and Marcus Helbig. Twelve minutes to go, the Swedish lead had shrunk to 22:21 with the exception of one goal. Hansen pocketed his eighth seven-metre – with a score of 25:25, it was the last five minutes.
Denmark were now able to outnumber Denmark, but when the two minutes had elapsed, Sweden had scored two goals and the Jacobsen team had none. It seemed to be the decision, but then an unbelievable final phase followed. The Danes caught up with a three-goal gap in the last two minutes. The last attack, for which there was only eight seconds time, was completed by Lasse Svan, after an outstanding pass from Hansen, literally in the last second to 28:28 – it was an extra time, two times five minutes.
Denmark took full risk in the second half of the extra time and took the seventh fielder, although it was only one goal behind. Soon a ball was lost and Sweden hit the empty goal at 33:31, which meant the first two-goal lead in extra time. The Danes did not recover from this. They will meet France on Sunday in the match for third place.
Scorers Denmark: Mikkel Hansen (12 – 8 of 8 seven-metre), Lye (11), Svan (5), Olsen (3), Zachariassen (2), Mensah Larsen (1)
Goal scorers Sweden: Zachrisson (8 – 1 of 1 seven-metre), Gottfridsson (7), Ekberg (7 – 3 of 3 seven-metre), Arnesson (6), Wanne (3), Henningsson (2), Östlund, Nielsen (both 1), Tollbring (0 – 0 of 1 seven-metre)
Two-minute time penalty: Denmark 3 – Sweden 4
The man from the foxes Berlin showed an incredibly courageous and outstanding performance. It was Zachrisson who scored two goals in the final phase of the regular season, when Sweden had to outnumber the Danes by scoring a few goals. He also met twice in overtime. Zachrisson was also the best Swedish throwing team (8 out of 12) with eight stalls.
The goalkeeper from THW Kiel started terribly in the game (1 of 10) we had to go down early. Later Landin was replaced again and increased. In the final phase of the game, however, he held almost nothing. Its total quota was 21 percent (6 out of 28).