Handball: Portugal witnesses Denmark's escape in the second half and loses by ten goals

On Monday, Portugal lost to Denmark 37-27, in the third and final round of Group F, in a confrontation between two teams that had already qualified for the main round.

Denmark, a three-time world champion and already European champion in 2008 and 2012, began scoring, but Portugal was nevertheless able to respond to the first two goals from the Nordic countries, with two goals from Martim Costa, making the score 2-2. And then, the first elimination of the match, a Alexandre Cavalcanti kick – a ball into the face of the opposing goalkeeper – allowed the three-time world champion to make the first difference on the scoreboard.

After nine minutes, Denmark reached its largest margin so far with four goals, with a score of 7-3, while coach Paulo Jorge Pereira asked for a “timeout” to talk to the team.

Portugal performed well and reduced the score to two goals, 8-6, 10-8, and 11-9, but Denmark did not commit any mistakes and advanced by five goals, when they scored 14-9 and also 15-10 before the end of the first half.

Denmark-Portugal: Game film, so far

However, Portugal finished the first half well and, thanks to eight goals scored by Martim Costa, went to the break losing 17-15. Just before the end of the first half, Martim almost reduced the score to 17-16, and Denmark even celebrated the 18th goal, which was eventually disallowed using video support, because it had exceeded the time limit.

In the second half, Denmark began to score, bringing the score to 19-15, and with the passage of time, they gradually expanded the difference, which in the 47th minute reached eight goals, the largest so far.

By then, Portugal was already attacking without a goalkeeper, going seven versus six several times, but to no effect in closing the distance: if the national team scored, Denmark responded immediately afterwards. The final difference was ten goals, with the final score ending at 37-27 (20-12 partial in the second 30 minutes).

Martim Costa was Portugal's top scorer with nine goals. On the Danish side, Matthias Guedsel was the team's top scorer and also the top scorer of the match with 11 goals.

Thus, Denmark qualifies with two points for the main round and Portugal with zero.

Final classification – Group F
First: Denmark 6 points
Second: Portugal, 4
Third: Czech Republic, 2
Fourth: Greece 0