Denmark defeated Germany in convincing fashion to earn Men’s Handball gold in Lille. Mikkel Hansen’s career ends in stunning style with a 39-26 win which included 11 goals from Mathias Gidsel.
Match Report –
Denmark went into the game looking to earn their second Men’s Handball gold medal after losing out in Tokyo. The Rio champions were taking on Germany, who were playing in their first final since 2004. Rasmus Lauge opened the scoring for Denmark after a minute before Johannes Golla instantly responded. The game started off very even with both sides trading blow for blow. After eight minutes, the score was in Denmark’s favour with them holding a 6-5 lead. It was, however, the next five minutes that decided the destination of the final with, Denmark going six goals unanswered. In the last 15 minutes of the half Germany attempted to get themselves back into the game, but the Danish would not go away with Mathais Gidsel scoring three goals in three minutes to help his cause in the top scorer race. Germany continued to make lots of unforced errors and at the half Denmark had a commanding 21-12 lead.
Simon Pytlick, Magnus Landin and Gidsel knew that they could all put assure Denmark of the gold with some early goals, and that’s what they managed extending their lead to twelve after five minutes. The game then turned into an even spell with both sides going back and forth but obviously Denmark was happy to let that occur, knowing they held a massive advantage. Gidsel then was able to add a few more to his tally, eventually ending with 11 goals for the day. Both sides played out the final few minutes and the finishing scoreline was 39-26. That meant Denmark became Olympic champions for the second time in their history, in extremely convincing fashion, the result becoming the biggest final win in Olympic history. Gidsel ended with 62 goals for the tournament which earnt himself the top scorer crown and was also enough to get the most goals ever at an Olympics.
Bronze Medal Match Recap –
Spain and Slovenia were the two sides that were taking each other on for the bronze medal. The Spanish side had already been at this stage four times, and all four times they had secured third place. It was the first time that Slovenia had even made the Semi-Finals and therefore they were looking for their first ever medal. The reigning bronze medallists took the lead when Aleix Gomez gave them the lead from a penalty shot. At the halfway stage of the first half, it however was Slovenia who had the lead with a two-goal advantage. Right on the half time whistle, Jure Dolenec scored his penalty to tie the game at 12 all.
Both sides came out for the second half firing in what was becoming a really competitive encounter. With fifteen minutes to go the score was 17-17 and both sides knew that if they could just string something together then they could take home the gold. Neither side was really able to do that though with Slovenia taking the lead through Tilen Kodrin before Gomez turned the deficit around three minutes later. Going into the last-minute Spain had a one goal lead and that would be how it ended as Borut Mackovsek’s last second shot was saved. The result means that Spain won their fifth bronze medal out of the last eight Olympics, so they will definitely be looking to go one better, and make the final, in 2028. There does have to be a word for Alexs Vlah though who had a brilliant Olympics, ending with a total of 56 goals.
