The penultimate day of the IHF Beach Handball Men’s and Women’s World Championship Heraklion 2022, was decisive for the 8 countries that played the matches of the quarter-finals of the tournament, between them, Argentina and Brazil.
The South American squads knew they had to secure the victory to continue advancing in the championship, but that goal could only be met by the Brazilian men’s team.
Brazil’s women’s and men’s teams opened the day for the South Americans. While the women’s team faced the Netherlands -team that took away the winning streak to Argentina in the last game of the Main Round-, the men’s team was measured against Spain, the current champions of the tournament.
In the case of the women’s national team, the Netherlands beat Brazil 2-0 in a match where each set was defined by a goal difference. With that result, the Brazilians had to play the definition of the 5° to the 8° place of the table against France, an encounter that the Europeans won by only a bit of difference in shoot-outs.
Tomorrow, the Cariocas must play their last match of the tournament against Germany in the definition of the 7° place of the table.
Meanwhile, the men’s team knew how to dominate the court against the Spaniards, stay with the 2 sets and with the semifinal qualification. Thus, the verdeamarelha were waiting for the result between Argentina and Iran to know who would be their rival in the last match of the day.
In that meeting, the Argentine team lost its first set, but managed to equalize the score by staying with the second and the game was defined in shoot-outs. Unfortunately, Iran was more effective, led the count and kept the semi-finals.
As the Asian country became Brazil’s rival, Argentina bid farewell to the podium, but not to the competition.
During the afternoon, the albicelestes played the qualifying match at 5° to 8° place against Spain, where they were superior and won the commitment, so tomorrow must define with Ukraine who occupies the 5° place of the world ranking.
Brazil goes for medal
In the afternoon, the team that would play the final against Croatia had yet to meet.
In the last match of the day, Brazil went out to face Iran in a decisive and, therefore, difficult duel. The Asian team kept the first set of the match, but could not stay with the second. The Brazilians pulled out all their punches and matched the match by reaching the shoot-outs, instance where Brazil was vastly superior and closed the match with an 8-4 set.
With this result, Brazil is installed for the first time in a Beach Handball Youth Final and confirms that its minor categories are also part of the great powers of this discipline.
The “Kamikaze” stay off the podium
Argentina’s women’s team was one of the medal candidates: reached the Main Round with Spain and Hungary as one of the 3 unbeaten teams in the tournament, They managed to position themselves in the 1st place of Group I and were positioned with one of the strongest teams in the championship.
However, today the dream was frustrated when they faced Spain in the quarterfinals match. The Europeans stayed with the match after winning by 2 sets to 0 and, although the difference in the score was minimal, the effort of the albicelestes was not enough.
Thus, Argentina stayed off the podium, but still wanted to achieve the best possible place in the championship standings.
In their second commitment of the day, for the classification to the matches of 5° and 8° place, the Argentines played against Germany and, although they started down, they managed to equalize the account, go to the shoot-outs and close the game in a 1-2 favorable to Argentina.
Tomorrow, the “Kamikaze” will close their participation in the World Cup in the duel against Brazil for the 5th place in the table.
Uruguay seeks the highest ranking in
Although none of their teams passed the preliminary stage of the World Championship, Uruguay is making history by participating for the first time in a World Beach Handball Youth and today, both teams had to face their qualifying duels at 9°-16° place of the table.
The women’s team started their day against Ukraine, where they played a good match that reached the definition by shoot-outs. Unfortunately, the charrúas fell to the European ones, so he had to face Hong Kong in the definition of the position 13 to 16.
In that match, the celestes got their third win of the tournament after winning 2-0 and tomorrow they must play against India in the fight for 13th place in the table.
For their part, the men’s team had their first match of the day against Qatar, in which they fell 2-1.
At the end of the day, he would have his revenge against the United States. The second meeting of the Uruguayans was dominated by them and they managed to close the score at 0-2 favorable to the Charrúas, thus adding a new victory to the books.
In their last match of the tournament, Uruguay will go looking for the 13th place in the table against the hosts, Greece.
Check all the results of the day:
Female Branch
9-16 Greece vs. India 2-1
CF Hungary vs France 2-0
9-16 Puerto Rico vs Romania 0-2
CF Brazil vs Netherlands 0-2 (17:18/19:20)
CF Poland vs Germany 2-1
CF Spain vs Argentina 2-0 (24:14/22:20)
9-16 Thailand vs Hong Kong 2-0
9-16 Ukraine vs Uruguay 2-1 (18:19/17:16/7:6)
5-8 France vs Brazil 2-1 (12:28/26:16/5:4)
9-12 Greece vs Romania 0-2
13-16 India vs Puerto Rico 2-0
5-8 Germany vs Argentina 1-2 (23:20/17:19/6:9)
SF Hungary vs Netherlands 0-2
9-12 Thailand vs Ukraine 0-2
13-16 Hong Kong vs Uruguay 0-2 (12:20/7:20)
SF Poland vs Spain 1-2
Male Branch
CF Croatia vs Ukraine 2-0
CF France vs Germany 2-1
9-16 Sweden vs Togo 0-2
CF Brazil vs Spain 2-0 (19:18/22:17)
9-16 Greece vs Czech Republic 0-2
CF Iran vs Argentina 2-1 (19:12/14:15/8:4)
9-16 Jordan vs United States 2-0
9-16 Qatar vs Uruguay 2-1 (20:14/14:17/7:6)
5-8 Ukraine vs Germany 2-0
5-8 Spain vs Argentina 1-2 (16:18/18:15/4:7)
9-12 Sweden vs Czech Republic 2-0
13-16 Togo vs Greece 0-2
SF Croatia vs France 2-1
9-12 Jordan vs Qatar 1-2
13-16 United States vs Uruguay 0-2 (16:26/14:15)
SF Brazil vs Iran 2-1 (12:18/21:14/8:4)
Photo: IHF
