Europe’s fabulous four provided a litmus test for the medals in the men’s Olympic tournament on Saturday night and while Sweden vs Germany was one for the purists, Denmark and France served up a match everyone could enjoy.
Both sides displayed an almost exhibition-level of brilliance in the first half and it was Denmark who kept it going for the full hour to run out 37:29 victors.
The home crowd was pumped, fresh from celebrating France’s first gold medal of the games, an unlikely Antoine Dupont-inspired triumph in Rugby Sevens, and it hit another level at the beginning of tonight’s main event.
France started with a bang, racing into a 9:4 lead with in-flight goals, long-range bangers and Vincent Gerard proving he’s earned his spot between the posts with five big saves.
At the pace these sides play at, however, five goals is nothing and Denmark soon proved this with a composed comeback, led by Mathias Gidsel and Simon Pytlick in attack, while Niklas Landin entered the fray to make six saves from 13 attempts.
The Danes took an 18:17 lead with them into the dressing room, bringing an end to one of the most impressive halves of preliminary round handball we’ve seen for a long time.
Cold-blooded brilliance
While Palicka and Wolff made the headlines earlier in the evening, it was actually Niklas Landin who ended up with the best goalkeeper stats of the lot with 15 saves at 45% and he did it in his own classic way, being in the right place, his slight movements at times, acrobatic brilliance at others, all equally effective in killing French opportunities.
But as the time ticked on towards 60 minutes, what impressed me the most was how cold-blooded and brutally efficient Denmark were in attack. They’ve learned some lessons from January and did what they wanted in front of goal, Gidsel and Pytlick helped themselves to 11 goals each en route to a nine-goal win.
The manner of defeat in the final minutes deflated France somewhat and it’s far from the imagined dream start to their title defence. But they’ll find their way through this tournament, ensuring tonight’s performance will be a distant memory by the time they reach Lille.
The scheduling gods served us a treat on day one with Europe’s top four sides facing off and it certainly provided us with plenty of early insight into each team’s shape.
Based on what we say today, it may seem difficult to imagine these four teams as being on the same handball stratum, but styles make matches and this was certainly the case tonight. There’s no guarantee we’ll see Denmark and France face off in the final but tonight’s showcase certainly whets the appetite for such a meeting.