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Simon Pytlick (left) was the Danish team's best thrower
Photo: Piotr Hawalej / dpa
Defending champion Denmark has reached the final of the Handball World Championship.
Coach Nikolaj Jacobsen's team defeated vice European champions Spain in the semi-finals 26:23 (15:10) and is therefore just one step away from the historic World Cup hat-trick.
After 2019 and 2021, Denmark could become the first country to conquer the crown of the handball world for the third time in a row.
The Danes were highly concentrated in Gdansk and were ahead from the first minute.
The team kept their cool even when Spain were within a goal with 12 minutes remaining.
The best Danish thrower was backcourt player Simon Pytlick with six goals.
At the back, Niklas Landin repeatedly defused decisive balls, and the keeper of THW Kiel also parried the last Spanish seven-meter penalty 45 seconds before the end at a score of 25:23.
And so Denmark extended its super series and remained undefeated in the 27th World Cup game in a row - under Jacobsen the northern Europeans have not lost a single World Cup game.
The final opponent of the Danes on Sunday (8.30 p.m. / Eurosport) in Stockholm is the Olympic champion and six-time world champion France, who prevailed in the second semi-final against European champion Sweden 31:26 (16:12).
With that, the Équipe Tricolore destroyed the title dreams of the co-hosts.
Unimpressed by the noisy crowd in front of 19,128 fans, coach Guillaume Gille's team opened up four goals in the final stages of the first half and did not allow the Swedes, who were sorely missing the injured playmaker Jim Gottfridsson, to come close.
Germany plays against Norway for fifth place
The German handball players are back on the road to success.
The team of national coach Alfred Gislason won the first game in the placement round against Olympic fourth-placed Egypt 35:34 (30:30, 17:14) after extra time and will play against Norway for fifth place on Sunday at the end of the tournament.
The Scandinavians prevailed against Hungary 33:25 (16:13).
