Germany set up clash with South Korea at youth worlds

The field of the Women’s Youth World Championship 2018 in Kielce, Poland, has been reduced to eight teams after the Last 16 saw many comeback wins and some surprising results.

Seven European nations and South Korea are still in the race for the title, and they will take the court again in the quarter-final (playing schedule) on Thursday (16 August):

- Hungary vs Spain
- Netherlands vs Sweden
- Germany vs South Korea
- Denmark vs Russia

The official tournament website provides livestreams of all matches.

Germany recovered after the break

As the current Women’s 17 EHF EURO champions, Germany have been regarded one of the main title favourites but they struggled in their Last 16 match against Croatia. Germany were five goals down at half-time (14:9) but recovered after the break and grabbed a narrow 25:24 victory thanks to a last-minute goal by Laetitia Quist.

Germany’s next opponents, South Korea, were never in trouble against Japan and the Asian under-17 champions took a convincing 36:30 win, with 10 goals from right back Park So-youn.

Sweden turned the tide in the second half

Germany were not the only team to overturn a five-goal deficit as Sweden found themselves 15:10 behind against Romania after the first 30 minutes. But led by Isabelle Andersson’s eight goals, the Scandinavians turned the tide in the second half and won 22:20 against Romania, which had arrived in the Last 16 as Group A winners after beating Germany.

In the quarter-finals, Sweden will play the Netherlands, yet another team that staged a remarkable second-half comeback in the Last 16. The Dutch side trailed France by 16:12 at half-time but eight goals by Nikita van der Vliet and a late penalty by Nyala Krullaars earned them a surprising 24:23 victory.

In a similar scenario, Spain came back from behind to beat Norway, the silver medallists from last year’s Women’s 17 EHF EURO. The Scandinavian side failed to hold on to a two-goal half-time lead (9:7) as Spain came out on top, 20:18.

13 different Russian players made it onto the score sheet

Spain will next play Hungary, which had no trouble in defeating their neighbours Austria 36:22 (16:11), with Dora Kellermann netting six times.

Russia claimed an even bigger win by outscoring Tunisia 36:16 (18:10). No less than 13 different players from their squad made it onto the score sheet, led by left wing Ekaterina Levchina’s six goals.

Having won the women’s under-18 world title twice, Russia are next up against another two-time champion. Denmark will be their opponents in the quarter-final after left back Emilie Steffensen found the net eight times when Denmark ended the hopes of host nation Poland with a resounding 30:20 (12:9) victory.

Photos: IHF