Seven teams that made it to the quarter-finals at Egypt 2021 are also present in the final week at Poland/Sweden 2023, with Qatar being replaced by Germany between the best eight sides from two years ago.
It has been clear from the start of the championship that several teams can really dominate opponents, like France or Sweden, who have been riding six-game winning streaks on their way to the quarter-finals.
Consistency is key in modern handball, and this is exactly what those powerhouses returning to the quarter-finals are prizing on, delivering good performances repeatedly.
The last time Denmark lost a game at the IHF Men’s World Championship was January 2017, and the Scandinavian side were still building this golden generation they are riding on the way to medals.
Over the last three editions of the world handball flagship competition, Denmark scored a remarkable 829 goals, an average of 33.1 goals per match, while dominating other powerhouses and finding new weapons on attack, like backs Mathias Gidsel and Simon Pytlick, ensuring their future as a true contender for years to come.
It was a result that made a quarter-final berth a mission impossible for Patryk Rombel’s side, who needed three wins in the main round and other results to go their way.
“We are not happy because we wanted to fight for medals, for the Olympic Games qualification, but the loss against Slovenia, where we played very bad, ended all hopes.
The race for the top goal scorer title is as hot as ever, with Chile’s Erwin Feuchtmann leading the pack with 46 goals, one more than Iceland’s left wing Bjarki Mar Elisson and two more than Dutch right back Kay Smits.
His teammate, Mikkel Hansen, who scored 32 goals, is also in the mix, albeit somewhat further, as well as Germany’s left back Juri Knorr, who scored 37 times, one of the players that stole the show at Poland/Sweden 2023.
France extended their streak of quarter-final berths to an astonishing 16 tournaments in a row at the IHF Men’s World Championship after they started the competition with six straight wins for the fourth time in history.
Only one team in history – Sweden – have won more matches than France at the IHF Men’s World Championship, with Guillaume Gille’s side securing 119 wins in the competition.
The previous record, 57.8 goals per game, set at Germany 2007, has been bettered at this stage of the competition, with the 96 matches played so far at Poland/Sweden 2023 witnessing 5556 goals scored.
The highest-scoring game so far has been the one between Brazil and Iceland in the main round, with the two sides combining for 78 goals in Iceland’s 41:37 win, with 40 goals scored at the break.