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Spain broken, Denmark indifferent

In the second stage of the competition, Denmark won by 22-21 and Germany's semifinal game against Spain showed them the recipe to win more easily

ÖHB

The third big competition for this generation of players and the Spaniards lose the psychological battle in the semifinal. This time, they faced Germany on the other end, the opponents that have been regarded as the bigger favorites than the Furia. The match itself confirmed why that was the case - Baur's team almost didn't have to do anything as Spain did most of the work for them. That is, coach Martinez, who insisted on changing two players for offense and defense while Germany scored relatively easy goals from semi-counters.

- They were much stronger than us today. They didn't give us absolutely anything and we gave them a chance from the start to do what they do best - outrun us. They "killed" us with that and we just kept sinking in deeper. To beat such a team, you have to show a tougher mentality and look powerful. We lacked that; we played almost without any contact, we gave them wings and allowed them to walk their way to the finals - said the Spanish coach.

He was probably the main reason things went the way they did. He called for a one-minute break in the 3rd minute, he brought in more tension into the game, instead of calming the youth he's in charge of, like Baur did. Not even that break brought the expected results, and the anger resulted in Martinez throwing his pens, clipboards and other items that he got hold of. He changed ever possible player to find a line-up to stop his opponent but it didn't work.

ÖHB

- It wasn't our day. And we could have secured the WC with a win as the Danes lost the semifinals and both finalists will play in Brazil. This way, we will play in the qualifications whether we win or lose, but we can at least fight for bronze - added the Spanish coach, reflecting his higher expectations from this competition.

However, judging by what they've shown against Germany, the only thing the neutrals could have wondered is whether Spain actually deserve to be in the semifinal. The Balkan duo Slovenia-Serbia have surely shown more but didn't get their chance. La Furia can still get the medals if they beat Denmarm a team against whom they have an ax to grind: they left them without the medals in Bregenz, they cost them the finals last year in Budapest and then Germany beat them in the battle for the fourth spot.

- I think we'll go out with a much bigger desire to win, "hungry" for success. This match is at least as important as the last as we have a chance to decide whether we make it to the podium or not. We know we're in for a tough task but we'll do our best to take our reward - said Martinez.

They have already played against the Danes in the group stage and were defeated by only one goal. It was a duel of very strong defenses but the question is whether that will be the case today. Germany have given the Danes a great recipe on how to beat La Furia without too much trouble and Hansen's team might employ a different strategy. Against Sweden, they played a huge defensive battle but they didn't win it this time.

- I think we played a very poor first half and we could no longer catch up with them. The second half was much better, we won it by two goals, but the difference was too big. The Swedes also played a very smart game in the final stages - coolly said the Danish keeper Frandsen who was one of few good things for Denmark with 14 saves.

Fransden wasn't the only one who showed no emotions. Almost the entire team was like that, you couldn't even tell they had lost the match in which they could have secured EC medals. It seemed as if they were sick of games. But it's hard to expect something like that today as this is a match that will take away one team's chance of winning the medals. Hansen has come back from both previous competitions with a medal (bronze at EC, gold at WC) and there is no doubt he will want to continue this.

In order to get new medals, Denmarko have to be more concrete in their actions. Their transition was almost non-existent against Sweden. They had to take 34 long-distance shots, only 13 of which went in, while 14 were stopped by the Swedish keeper Thulin and the rest went past the goal. When you factor in a few periods in which they got technical errors, one could say their minimal draw was a good result.

Landin was their only player, apart from the keeper, worth mentioning. Their back court was immobile, they had a hard time getting through to their usually dominant pivot Hald, which was probably their biggest problem. Even Hansen figured out that as hard as Hald may try in offense, he just couldn't get the ball so he decided to make offense-defense alternations, but it yielded no results. In comparison to last year and WC, this is a completely different team in terms of quality and medals are not guaranteed.

It was interesting to see their senior national team's coach Wilbek get so frustrated by the situation with his players and his colleague Hansen who didn't call for a time-out when Wilbek thought he should (he sent this message to the bench via cell-phone). Denmark made a technical foul in that attack, and Sweden got to +3 and there was no coming back after that. It's hard to say whether this will be the case today. Spain are desperate for revenge but they're shocked by their defeat against Germany. The Danes are calm but this means they can go either way.