The last day of the 2018 IHF Women’s Junior World Championship throws-off this afternoon with France taking on Romania for seventh place, while the Netherlands aim to make history by beating Denmark in their fifth-place play-off – the second time the two teams meet in Debrecen after their tight Preliminary Group match.

Saturday 14 July

Both games at Fonix Hall and they will be streamed live on the Official Hungary 2018 website HERE. Times local.

Placement 7/8 Match: France vs Romania – 1230 hrs

Both teams were well beaten in the first set of matches in the 5-8 Placement Round yesterday and it will be interesting to see if either can pick themselves up.

Romania picked up a bronze last time around at the IHF Women’s Junior World Championship, in Slovakia back in 2016, while France have improved from their 13th position then.

However, France may feel the more disappointed after an impressive Preliminary Group campaign and eighth-final victory, but eventual finalists Norway came from behind to beat them in the quarter-finals and then they lost to an inspired Dutch team yesterday 29:23.

Romania lost to Denmark yesterday by nine goals and their coach Gheorghe Tadici will be hoping for a positive reaction to the loss against the Danes as they aim to end their campaign on a positive note in what will be the last game for many of his squad at this age level.

Placement 5/6 Match: Netherlands vs Denmark – 1500 hrs

Dutch coach Robert Nijdam admitted that it was “really hard” and that the players felt like going home after their quarter-final loss, but after a team walk which involved an ice cream, they found their motivation to take a six-goal win against France yesterday in the first set of matches in the 5-8 Placement Round.

Despite playing and losing already against the Danes at Hungary 2018, in their final preliminary group game (25:24), the Dutch have something more than revenge to play for today - a chance for this generation of Netherlands players to finish higher at a junior world championship than their previous best-ever finish in 12 attempts when the ‘golden generation’ ranked sixth at the 2010 IHF Women’s Junior World Championship in Korea.

That generation, coached by Monique Tijsterman featured Estavana Polman, Martine Smeets, Jessy Kramer, Danick Snelder and Debbie Bont as just some of the players who made their mark in Asia, but current Dutch coach Robert Nijdam is not looking back, rather forwards.

“I don’t like to play against history - we play our own game,” said Nijdam. “After we lost our quarter-final, we were down but we got ourselves together and said; ‘we are still in a world championship’, but this team are ready to make the step up, I am sure about that.

“Four of them have already played their first senior match so they are coming.”

Runners-up at the last youth world championship with this generation, and junior title holders Denmark will be the more disappointed of the teams going into the match, and could only name 14 players in their 29:20 victory over Romania.

But their fast-break and 7 vs 6 play will have to be at its very best today to beat an inspired Dutch goalkeeper Yara Ten Holte, who ended with a 46% save rate in their 5-8 Placement Match yesterday.

“We know we can beat them and play better than we played against them in the first game,” said Ten Holte about the Danes. “It will be a close game, but with the support of our parents here and our many friends watching at home we can win.”