Place 15/16

Hungary – France 32:20 (14:10)

 

Three placement matches, three defeats: The French girls conclude this Women´s Youth (U18) World Championship as 16th in the overall ranking. And this was due to another insufficient performance in the match against Hungary. Only for a few minutes long they could keep up with their competitor, but then Hungary was extending their lead goal by goal up to 14:10 at break. Coming back on court the Hungarians pre-decided the match directly after the start of the second half, when they scored five times in a row and extended the intermediate result from 14:10 up to 19:10. France did not recover during the left 20 minutes. On contrary: Hungary was still hungry for goals and scored a twelve-goal lead after 60 minutes and finished their appearance at this tournament with a sense of achievement.

 

 

Place 13/14

Norway – Japan 34:30 (14:15)

 

In their last placement match Norway beat Japan 34:30. But for a long time the match for the places 13 and 14 was a real tied encounter of two equal competitors. Ten times the intermediate result was a draw and after 39 minutes the Japanese were ahead with two goals (22:20), just when the Scandinavian girls mobilized their forces and started their final attack. For two times the Norwegian scored four goals in row and did not only turn the match completely to their favor, but also pre-decided the game, when they were in lead with 29:24 after 50 minutes. The more the Japanese lacked power at the end of such a long tournament, the taller the Norwegians grew. Finally they won this match ranked 13^th well-earned, but nevertheless they need to let the other two Scandinavian teams from Sweden and Denmark go first in the final ranking of this Women´s Youth (U18) World Championship.

 

Place 11/12

Argentina – Portugal 26:30 (13:16)

 

After the end of the match the Portuguese girls were happy about their victory against Argentina, that was much clearer than the result of 30:26 suggests. But for the European team it was a tournament of missed chances. They played a very good preliminary round and they lost an epic eighth-final against Germany in a penalty shootout. So the victory against Argentina in their last performance in this Women´s Youth (U18) World Championship was nothing more but a small reconciliation. Portugal once again demonstrated that they are on a good way and needed only eleven minutes to pre-decide this match for place 11. After a 3:3 intermediate result in the initial stages of the match they built up a 11:4 lead. After that they were dominating their contributor until the final whistle and won this match well-deserved.

 

 

Place 9/10

Croatia – Sweden 22:29 (13:14)

 

With a 29:22 victory against Croatia the Swedish girls won the placement round for the places 9 to 16. But the Scandinavians had to break heavy resistance especially during the first half. Croatia was constantly in lead up to the 24th minute. But when Emma Ekenman scored for 12:12 draw the match turned and after a one-goal lead at break (14:13) the Scandinavians played a concentrated second half and built up a clear lead goal by goal. Finally Sweden was seven goals ahead against a team, who was yet one of the favorites during the preliminary round. The Scandinavians were very satisfied with the ninth place in the final ranking of this tournament, Croatia on the other hand was disappointed.