After France and Montenegro had booked their tickets to London already on day 2 in Lyon, expectedly Denmark and Russia have made it to the Olympics on Saturday, too. Both took their second victories in Aalborg, Denmark, and face in the duel for the first and the second positions on Sunday.

 

 Tunisia vs. Russia 20:33 (8:17)

Twelve goals of Raja Toumi could not avoid the end of the race to London for Tunisia after their opening defeat against Denmark, as Russia was too dominant in the whole 60 minutes. Thanks to a well balanced team performance the four times World Champion and 2008 Olympic Silver medalist left no doubt about the winner. After their clear victory against the Dominican Republic on Friday it was no high hurdle for the Russian to earn their London ticket. Tunisia was quite equal until the score of 7:9, before the Russian early decided the game with a 8:1 series until the break. And ten minutes later the game seemed to have become a disaster for the Northern Africans when Russia had started their turbo and led 25:9. The game was done for the favourite and Tunisia only was able to reduce the gap to finally 13 goals.

 

Statements after the match

Mohamed Ali Sghir, coach, Tunisia: Yesterday we gave all in trying to win against Denmark. We lost and then it was very hard for my players to find the resources to play against such a tough opponent as Russia. And when a couple of players get injured it is even more difficult. So it was an impossible task.

 

Mouna Chebbah, player, Tunisia: Russia is a very, very good team and we had no chances once they really started. The problem of handball in Tunisia is, that we have played with the same players for many years now and that we haven’t got as many good players as the big nations like Russia and Denmark for instance.

 

Jevgeni Trefilov, coach, Russia: My team played better than against the Dominican Republic yesterday – but the opponent was better, too. I am very satisfied that we have now qualified for the Olympic Games and tomorrow we want to beat Denmark to win this qualification group.

 

Irina Nikitina, player, Russia: I am very excited about being qualified for the Olympic Games and I hope we will do well in London. We have had no difficulties in winning the first two matches and I know that it will be much harder on Sunday against Denmark.

 

 

Dominican Republic vs. Denmark 21:38 (13:20)

With all field players scoring, Denmark celebrated the return to the Olympic Games after they had missed the tournament in Beijing. The three times Olympic Gold medalist (1996, 2000, 2004) had a much easier task than on Friday when they had to fight hard against Tunisia. Again the Dominicans were far beyond the performing level of the European top team. 13 minutes they could stand the heat against the Danes then the host extended the gap minute by minute. When the distance was seven goals at the break, the winner was already obvious and then – like against Russia the day before - the Dominicans lacked power and concentration and became a victim of the Danish counter attacks. Mie Augustesen and Camilla Dalby each scored six goals for this easily earned victory in an absolute unequal duel. Pop and Andino scored the same number of goals for the Pan Americans.

 

Results of day 1:

Russia vs. Dominican Republic 41:17 (20:10) 

Denmark vs. Tunisia 28:24 (12:13)

 

Match schedule day 3, 27 May:

18:15: Tunisia vs. Dominican Republic

20:15: Denmark vs. Russia