A touch of revenge

France, the world champions, suffered a nightmare three minutes just before half-time in their match, allowing the Koreans to score five times without reply.

From 13-13, they were chasing the game and the Koreans comfortably kept their cushion running out 30-23 winners.

Korean topped Group B with France finishing third.

"It's a little bit worrying especially for our confidence," said France's Sandrine Delerce. "Now we must turn the page on this match and wait for our quarter-final. If it is Hungary then there will be a touch of revenge."

Revenge will certainly be uppermost in the minds of the Hungarians who will be wondering how they managed to lose against Ukraine. They controlled it for 58 minutes and going into the last five minutes, they had a three-point lead. However, they let the Ukrainians back in and lost 23-22.

That result meant that Ukraine finished first in Group A and their reward is a tie against Spain, maybe the weakest of the last eight.

Korea also have a comfortable passage to the semi-finals as they take on Brazil, who were beaten 28-23 by China with Chao Zhai scoring 10 points. The Chinese will now face Denmark.

"The Danish team is a strong one," said the Chinese coach Hyungkyun Chung. "We know how good they are but we will try our best against them. When you are playing in a quarter-final there are no advantages or disadvantages. We'll go and do our best."

The Danes, seeking a third successive gold medal, romped to a 38-22 against Angola with Line Daugaard scoring seven times.

Ukraine 25 - 23 Spain

France - Hungary

South Korea - Brazil

China - Denmark