Sweden reached their first semi-final since 2010 as they swept past the Netherlands in the penultimate game of Poland 2018 at the Politechnika Hall in Kielce and, as the venue closed its doors to the world championships, a tough match-up battle saw title-holders Russia defeat Denmark in a re-match of the 2016 final.
Quarter-Finals
Politechnika Hall
Netherlands vs Sweden 17:27 (9:13)
A year ago at the Women's 17 EHF EURO, Sweden beat Netherlands by 11 and today, in the quarter-finals of the IHF Women's Youth World Championship it was double figures again as Niklas Harris' Sweden booked their place in the semi-finals on Saturday thanks to an impressive attacking, and defensive display.
At the back, the Swedes were led by a glittering performance from Sweden goalkeeper Josefine Hultberg-Dahlgren who ended with a 44% save rate - who stopped the Dutch 12 times to ensure their top-scorer Nikita Van Der Vliet ended with no goals from just two attempts, but also inspired her own attackers as well, who scored 12 times from nine metres, in direct contrast to just two from the Netherlands.
Qualification to the semi-finals means at least a ranking of fourth for the Swedes, their best finish since they debuted in 2010, when they won gold.
"We played wonderful in defence and we only let them score 17 goals which is amazing," said Harris. "We were fighting very, very hard to get the Dutch players to the shooting areas where we wanted them to be and then we could make the turnovers and score goals."
"It wasn’t our day today," said Netherlands coach Ricardo Clarijs to www.handballpoland2018.pl after the match. "We had a lack of energy, their goalkeeper was really good, we had some bad luck hitting the post and missing seven metres.
"My team developed many things during this tournament and I’m really proud of them because they always keep fighting until the very end and did so today. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose, but at the end of the day I’m very glad because of how we work as a team."
Best players of the match: Nyala KRULLAARS (NED), Josefine HULTBERG-DAHLGREN (SWE).
Denmark vs Russia 25:29 (12:14)
Russia booked a semi-final spot for the third time in IHF women's youth world championship history as they continue on their path to defending the title they won at the last edition, in 2016.
A 42% save rate from Russia's goalkeeper Anna Vereshchak and 57% shooting accuracy were key to the victory which will see the Russians take on Sweden on Saturday in the semi-finals.
The fans inside were not disappointed by the match with a dramatic and exciting match-up between 32 players of the very best female players in the world at this age.
After leading comfortably for the opening six minutes (3:1), Russia coach Liubov Sidoricheva then saw her side concede five in a row without scoring as the lead switched sides and as the game started to swing after four of those goals, Sidoricheva took a time out just before the 10-minute mark, but it would prove to have no effect as the Danes went further ahead (9:5 - 18th minute).
However, it seemed the Russians wanted a challenge as they then went on a 9:2 run to go ahead late in the half, taking a 14:12 lead into the break.
Denmark coach Flemming Dam Larsen had taken a time out in that period, when the Russians had brought it even (11:11), but nothing could stop the Russian attack, led by Elena Smirnova and Elena Mikhaylichenko who scored seven of those nine in a frantic period which also saw the Danes receive a two-minute suspension for Naja Frokjaer-Jensen.
The Danes managed to keep in touch until the 50th minute (21:21), after Emilie Bodholdt Steffensen had been a one-woman scoring machine, scoring five times in the opening seven minutes to bring the scores even (17:17), but Russia stepped up again, most impressively when Viktoriia Turusina smashed home to make it 27:23 in the 57th minute after a fantastic exchange of bullet passes on the line, firstly from the centre, to the wing and then back into the middle.
With this freedom to express themselves, backed up by a tough defence and long-range striking probabilities, Russia look to be the team to stop at Poland 2018.
Best players of the match: Emilie Bodholdt STEFFENSEN (DEN), Kristina MUKHINA (RUS)
Photos: Lukasz Laskowski/Lukasz Sobala/ZPRP