All handball fans woke up Thursday morning wondering in what sauce Switzerland was going to be eaten at the World Cup by the Olympic champions and winners of the last three world championships, the Danes.
In this second match of the main round, Andy Schmid’s players also had the formidable honor of playing in Herning, in front of an audience totally committed to the cause of his national team. And what was expected happened, Switzerland was slapped by Denmark 39-28, thus losing their last hope – even if it was small – of reaching the quarter-finals.
If goalkeeper Nikola Portner and the Swiss defense held up well at the start of the match, the attacks lacked sharpness and almost all came up against the impressive Danish goalkeeper, Emil Nielsen.
Switzerland nevertheless resisted for around ten minutes (4-4, 10th) before seeing the best team in the world escape. Faced with the speed and offensive imagination of the Danes, the white cross players quickly lost their footing. They entered halftime seven goals behind (11-18).
-In the second period, the objective was clear: avoid being crushed and why not do better than Germany, the reigning Olympic vice-champion, beaten by 10 points (40-30) by these same Danes on Tuesday. Objective missed, but barely.
With three points in the standings and a final game to play on Saturday (3:30 p.m.) against Italy (4 points), Switzerland can still hope to take third place in their group. Which would be a very good performance for a team which is only participating in its second World Cup since 1995.
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