The penultimate day of the Women’s Junior World Championship in Croatia brings the decisions on the positions 9 - 16 in the final ranking. Brazil and Sweden have won the first two placement matches on Saturday (12 July) in Dugo Selo.

Placement match 15/16: Brazil - Portugal 33:28 (19:18)

Brazil finishes the competition as the best ranked Portuguese speaking team after beating their language-fellows. Both sides played an incredible first half with 37 goals in 30 minutes. And both teams - clearly focusing on attack, not defence - were on an equal level most of the time, the biggest gap before the break was two goals on each side.

In the starting period of the second half Brazil had already paved the winners’ way by a 6:1 series to 25:19. Though the Portuguese team reduced the gap to two goals in the middle of the second half, they could not manage to turn the match around, as the Brazilian shooters were more efficient. In the end, when Portugal lacked power and concentration, the Brazilian win became a clear one.

Best scorers were Marina Lopes and Monica Soares, striking nine times each, Giulia Guareiro scored seven times for the victors.

Placement match 13/14: Sweden - Slovenia 30:20 (17:6)

It took exactly 13 minutes, until the match was decided: Swedish goalkeeper Jessica Ryde stood like a power of tower, Slovenia could not manage to score anymore, and the Scandinavians overran their competitors by counter-attacks - the consequence was 9:1 lead. It took Slovenia 14 minutes to score their second goal and when the score was 12:3 in minute 21, their coach had already taken his second time-out. At 15:5 the margin was double-figured for the first time, as alongside the fast break goals, Sweden - led by Mikaela Massing - scored also from the back court positions precisely.

And the taller and more powerful Swedes arrived back on the court after the halftime break still with a clearer will and determination. But the Slovenians wanted to say farewell to Croatia in a better way than in the first half. As the Scandinavians lacked some concentration in attack, the Slovenians first managed that the gap was not increasing and then even to slightly reduce it to 19:27 in minute 56 - to finally “win” the second half by 14:13. But the Swedish victory was endangered in not a single  second.