REVIEW: World champions France take on EHF EURO winners Germany and Poland play Denmark in the Olympic semi-finals as all four won their quarters at Rio 2016 on Wednesday
EHF EURO champions Germany take revenge against Qatar to reach Olympic semi-final
It was a day of revenges when the Olympic men's quarter-finals were played at Rio 2016 on Wednesday. With Germany vs Qatar and Poland vs Croatia, teams met who had played each other at different competitions in the recent past.
At the World Championship 2015, Qatar had beaten Germany 26:24, but there was no second win for the Qataris, as Germany cruised to a deserved 34:22 victory at Rio's Future Arena.
The EHF EURO 2016 winners meet France in the semi-final on Friday. France, the current world and Olympic champions, beat Brazil 34:27.
In the last of the four quarter-finals Poland faced Croatia. A bit more than half a year ago, Croatia had shattered Poland's dreams of reaching the semi-finals at the EHF EURO 2016 when they beat them 37:23 in Krakow. Croatia's win back then also led to the resignation of Polish head coach Michael Biegler.
Under the guidance of new head coach Talant Dujshebaev, Poland turned the fortunes around in Rio. They beat Croatia 30:27 to set up a semi-final clash against Denmark.
The Danes reached the semi-final with a convincing 37:30 win against Slovenia.
Germany will meet France at 20:30 hrs CET on Friday. The match between Poland and Denmark is scheduled for 1:30 hrs CET on Saturday morning.
The bronze medal match and the gold medal match will take place at 15:30 hrs and 19:00 hrs CET respectively on Sunday.
Photos: Stephane Pillaud / IHF
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EHF / ts