Summary Olympic gold Denmark and Euro winner Germany crashed out of the world handball championships
PARIS (AFP) - Olympic gold medallists Denmark and European champions Germany crashed out of the world handball championships at the last-16 stage on Sunday.
Denmark were stunned 27-25 by Hungary while Germany lost 22-20 to Qatar, who were runners-up to France at the last tournament in 2015.
It was the first time since 2005 that Denmark -- three-time finalists but never world champions -- have been dumped out of the competition before the quarter-finals.
"I think Hungary played better than us today. We had problems from the start. In my opinion, we were playing too slowly and our defence didn t perform as we wished," said Denmark coach Gudmundur Gudmundsson.
Hungary will face Norway on Tuesday for a place in the semi-finals while Qatar take on Slovenia.
Qatar s Cuban winger Rafael Capote scored nine goals to be named man of the match while German goalkeeper Andreas Wolff s impressive 19 saves were not enough to salvage his team s hopes.
