
Croatia harness emotional night in Zagreb to power into final
January 31, 2025
A January to remember: Croatia’s true heroes revel in the chance for a new gold medal
February 1, 2025After Croatia’s surprising win against France on Thursday in the first semi-final of the 2025 IHF Men’s World Championship against France, it is time for the second semi-final, which will be hosted by the Unity Arena, in Baerum, where Denmark face Portugal.
On paper, it looks like a battle between David and Goliath. Denmark are reigning champions, have not lost an official match in over a year, and did not concede a loss in the world handball flagship competition in eight years. On the other hand, Portugal are for the first time in history in this phase of the competition and can secure their maiden medal with a win here.
There is no question about which team is the favourite in this match. Denmark have scored the largest number of goals – 258 and a 36.8 goals on average per match – 18 more than Portugal. Their goalkeeping efficiency is a whopping nine percentage points higher than Portugal’s (40.9% to 31.2%). They have also conceded four goals less on average (23.2 to 27.7) than Portugal.
And they are on a mission, trying to beat their own record, as the first team which wins the title at the IHF Men’s World Championship four times in a row, adding one more star to their shirt, after securing the maiden three-peat at Poland/Sweden 2023.
“Last time it was absurd to become world champions for the third time in a row. No one had ever done that. We managed it. And now we have the opportunity to take another step in the history of the Danish men’s national team and become world champions for the fourth time,” said Danish right back Mathias Gidsel for Danish media outlet TV2.
Gidsel is in pole-position to take the top goal scoring award for the fourth major international competition in a row, having scored 55 goals in his first seven matches, five more than France’s Dika Mem, who played eight times.
He has a 66% shooting efficiency and will also likely top the assists standings, being only three assists shy of Chile’s Rodrigo Salinas, who has 41 and leads the top. With such impressive stats, Gidsel will be the man to watch for Denmark, but their pacy attack will likely cause serious trouble for Portugal, which will need to stop the fast throw-offs.
Portugal are a breath of fresh air in this competition, being one of the two unbeaten teams coming into the semi-final. So far, they won five matches and drew other two, including the dramatic quarter-final against Germany, where they mounted a comeback late to push the match into extra-time, where Martim Costa delivered the final blow in the dying seconds.
It has been a competition to remember for Francisco Costa (44 goals) and Martim Costa (37 goals), the brothers who have been delivering time after time in fantastic fashion for Portugal’s attack, in only their second appearance in the world handball flagship competititon.
“We will meet a true machine. They have been one of the best teams in the world in the past years. Sometimes, they are impossible to stop. But they have some weak points and we will try to exploit them,” said Portugal’s coach, Paulo Pereira, for ihf.info.
But if Portugal are to beat Denmark, they will have to mark a premiere. They have never beaten the Scandinavian side, losing all six matches played against them, including the last one, at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, 28:34, in the preliminary round. This will also be the maiden match between the two sides at the world handball flagship competition.