Olympics-Handball-Germany to face Denmark in final as Spain, Slovenia miss out
Updates after Slovenia/Denmark match
By America Hernandez
LILLE, France, Aug 9 (Reuters) -Germany edged Spain 25-24 in the Olympic men's handball semi-finals on Friday and will face Denmark for gold on Sunday after the Tokyo silver medallists just overcame Slovenia 31-30 in a surprisingly close match at the Pierre Mauroy stadium.
It was the fifth time Spain had been eliminated in the Olympic semi-finals and the first time since the 2004 Athens Games that Germany have reached the final.
In an unexpected twist, plucky Slovenia fought back from four points down in the final six minutes against unbeaten Denmark and almost levelled at the end to give them a scare.
But Slovenia left back Borut Mackovsek failed to score with a shot in the final seconds that would have triggered overtime.
"We were not disciplined enough in the second half, really under a lot of pressure, a lot of trouble to score and to play good defence, so we made it too close," said Danish right back Mathias Gidsel.
"We need to step up a little bit because when we show up like this, we'll get beaten by the German team," he added.
Earlier,Rio bronze medallists Germany went ahead early and remained in frontlargely thanks to superb blocking by their goalkeeperAndreas Wolff, but their four-point lead evaporated as Spain fought back to level at 12-12 just before halftime.
The Spaniardsleft wing Daniel Fernandez poured in five points and they were level at 24-24 with four minutes left.
A final goal by centre back Juri Knorr put Germany ahead, however, and Spain failed to force overtime as Wolff finished with 22 blocks.
"It was a difficult win because we didn't have the energy like we had to have, but we tried to fight and get a flow and a rhythm into the offence... Andy made really great saves, so he carried us in the final game," said rightback Renard Uscins.
Spain and Slovenia will meet on Sunday inthe bronze medal match followed by the Germany-Denmark final.
Reporting by America Hernandez, editing by Ed Osmond and Ken Ferris
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