First semi final:
Korea – Russia 26:30 (14:17)
The Koreans cried bitter tears, the Russians danced through the Tiger Hall in Seoul and jumped off the bench after the final whistle:  For the 13th time in the history of Women’s Junior World Championships Russia has reached the final. On the other hand WCH host Korea had to bury their dream of the first ever gold medal on home soil after their first defeat in the ninth WCH match. The Russians took a well-deserved victory in the lion’s den of Seoul, as Korea will have to play in the Bronze final on Saturday. Their opponents will be decided in the second semi Norway – Montenegro. “We knew that we really have to give all we can against this enthusiastic team of Korea.  But when the match was on the edge in the second half our players got better and better,” Russian coach Alexey Gumyanov said. Korean coach Baek Sangsuh was totally disappointed: “We had big problems in our defense, as we’re physical disadvantaged against those tall players. Russia played really well and deserved the victory.” Korean top player Eunbi Lee, who was close to tears in the press conference, added:  “We have to regret for this match. We couldn’t show what we can and on what we had prepared so hard before this tournament.”
The first half was something like a private shooter duel of Eunhee Ryu and Tatiana Khmyrova. As Ryu had hit the back of the net four times after 30 minutes, Khmyrova had five goals on her account, in the end it were outstanding ten decisive goals. Like against Germany, Korea again had initial problems with the tall and aggressive Russian defense, but later-on they found their way to go through. The biggest difference in the first 30 minutes was that Russia could change all players with nearly zero loss of quality, as Korea needed to build their match play on their top stars Ryu and Eunbi Lee, who were top scorers for Korea in the end with each eight goals..  The Russians played without compromise in the defense and showed a lot of variations in attack, like pivot and wing goals. But Korea was lucky that Russia hit the sidebar and the crossbar several times so they kept close most of the time. But in the last two minutes Korea missed too many chances and Russia increased the gap to three goals at the break – thanks to a successful last second shot of Anna Sen.
And in between the first two minutes of the second half Russia even went away to five goals (19:14). Supported by the nearly full Tiger Hall in Seoul started their catch-up chase - but as the Russian goalkeepers Maria Basarab and Elena Fomina, who saved four  seven meter shots after the break, were a real wall, the distance was only reduced to two or three goals. Korea couldn’t even take profit from a phase in the middle of the second half, as Russia was only with three players on the field after coach Gumyanov and two players were out with two minutes suspensions.  “We had prepared on every situation before the WCH, so also on this case. But we were really lucky that Korea couldn’t equalize in this decisive stage, “Gumyanov said after the match. “If we would have scored two or three goals in those two minutes, maybe we would have won the semi, “ Baek said.
The first semi became a real tough and intense fight on both sides. But despite several suspensions Russia kept cool in the hot atmosphere of the Tiger Hall and scored some short handed goals like from 23:25 to 23:27 in minute 53. Even a time-out of coach Baek didn’t bring the Koreans back on the winner’s way – in contrast: Russia pre decided the game with the score of 29:23 in minute 55. So the Russians could raise their winner’s fist in their time-out 80 minutes before the end, when the score was 30:25. “Despite missing our Gold dream those players have a bright future ahead,” Baek said: “We’ll see them at Olympics and World Championships. After this great disappointment we now go for Bronze, and want to thank the great audience by winning our last game.” And Russia’s going for Gold again: “We played a beautiful game against Korea – now we want to continue on or way, “ top scorer Khmyrova said.