TNT Sports
Thrilling win for Germany
By
Published 24/08/2004 at 23:37 GMT+1
Germany qualify for the semi-final of the men's tournament after a dramatic 32-30 win over Spain after penalty shoot-out. They will face defending champions Russia who edged out France 26-24. In the other semi, world champions Croatia will take on Hungary
Eurosport
Image credit: TNT Sports
Germany won the shootout after being tied with Germany 27-27 after full time, 28-28 after the first session of extra time and then 30-30 in the second session.
The other semi-final will be between the world champions Croatia, 33-27 winners over Greece, and Hungary who beat Korea 30-25.
"If we play as well as we did today then we have a chance against Croatia," said Istvan Pasztor, the Hungarian captain.
"If we can win against Germany and Korea then nothing is impossible."
The Germans deserved to win against the Spanish if only for their stubborn refusal to accept defeat. Spain twice had the match won and twice the Germans came back to tie it up.
With Spain leading by one point with six seconds left on the clock at the end of the first session of extra-time, Daniel Stephan levelled with a penalty.
That meant another 10 minutes of extra-time. This time Spain went 30-28 up and looked home. But Christian Schwarzer, who had an outstanding game with nine goals, scored twice to send the game into the shoot-out.
The German goalkeeper Henning Fritz saved the first four Spanish penalties while Torsten Jansen, summoned from the bench for his only contribution of the night, and Stephan netted for the Germans.
"It was very emotional, I don't think anyone will sleep tonight," said Germany's Volke Zerbe. "This was revenge for losing to the Spanish in Sydney."
In the final game of the night, the French led 14-13 at half-time but the Russians, inspired Vitali Ivanoc and Eduard Kokcharov, both of whom scored five times, just had the edge.
Follow live coverage of the semi-finals on Friday on eurosport.com!
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