Russia, Hungary march on as Germany stumble at youth worlds

Two former champions, a former runner-up and a first-time semi-finalist are keeping their dream alive of lifting the trophy at the Women’s Youth World Championship 2018 in Kielce, Poland.

Sweden, Russia, South Korea and Hungary have all successfully come through the quarter-finals on Thursday, albeit in very contrasting styles.

The semi-finals on Saturday (18 August) will see Hungary taking on South Korea at 17:30 hrs local time, and Sweden facing Russia at 20:00 hrs. The official tournament website provides livestreams of all matches.

Dramatic finish

The anticipated quarter-final between the continental under-17 champions of Europe and Asia, Germany and South Korea, lived up to its billing and culminated in a dramatic finish.

With their trademark fast play, South Korea took an early 5:1 lead. Germany were catching up throughout the entire match, reducing their deficit to two at half-time (15:13) and finally levelling the score in the last minute.

With just over 10 seconds left, Laetitia Quist netted for 29:29, but South Korea quickly regrouped and Yejin Yun stunned Germany with a last-second winner from the left wing, 30:29.

South Korea, the runners-up in 2006 and third-place finishers two years ago, will next play Hungary, who convincingly qualified for their first ever semi-final.

Outclassing their opponents

After winning their five group matches and outscoring Austria 36:22 in the Last 16, Hungary added a similar huge victory in the quarter-final against Spain, 33:20.

While the first half was still close (14:11), the Women’s 17 EHF EURO bronze medallists outclassed their opponents after the break, led by right wing Kira Banfai, who scored the perfect seven goals from seven attempts.

Sweden also earned a double-digit win, defeating the Netherlands 27:17 (13:9). The match was in the balance until 3:3 but the Scandinavians were ahead ever since.

Left back Isabelle Andersson was their best scorer again, with seven goals, raising her total for the tournament to 41.

Sweden, who won the title in 2010, will next face a two-time champion: Russia (2008, 2016) continued their strong run in the tournament by defeating Denmark 29:25 (14:12).

Left back Kristina Mukhina was the team’s best scorer with six goals, but also outstanding was goalkeeper Anna Vereshchak with a save percentage of 42.

Photos: IHF