In the preliminary round, 24 teams from all the world's continents were split into 4 groups, with the first-placed 3 teams advancing through the main round in two groups, carrying the previously won points against the remaining teams.[1]France won the tournament after defeating Denmark in the final, while Spain won the bronze medal after defeating Sweden in the third-place match. Thus, France has qualified for the tournament at the London Olympics.[2] The teams that finished in 2nd–7th place will play Olympic Qualifying Tournaments.
The host broadcaster was the Swedish commercial network TV4 Sport and the television rights were sold to other countries.[3]
One of the objectives of the championship was to create a multicultural party that extends far outside the handball arenas.[4]
Bahrain and Chile qualified for their first ever handball World Championship. Austria qualified for the first time since 1993, which, coincidentally, was also hosted by Sweden.
The following 24 teams qualified for the final tournament:
Twenty-four participating teams were placed in the following four groups. After playing a round-robin, the top three teams in each group advanced to the Main Round. The last three teams in each group played placement matches.
Tie-breaking criteria
For the three game group stage of this tournament, where two or more teams in a group tied on an equal number of points, the finishing positions will be determined by the following tie-breaking criteria in the following order[6]
number of points obtained in the matches among the teams in question
goal difference in the matches among the teams in question
number of goals scored in the matches among the teams in question (if more than two teams finish equal on points)
The top three teams of every preliminary group advanced to the Main round. Every team kept the points from preliminary round matches against teams who also advanced. In the main round every team had 3 games against the opponents they did not face in the preliminary round. The top two of every group advanced to the Semifinals, the other teams played placement matches.
The final was played at a sold-out Malmö Arena in Malmö between France and Denmark, and was followed by 12,462 spectators.[7] In addition, the match was aired on both major Danish public television channels DR1 and TV 2 with 2,670,000 viewers, making it the most watched sport event in Denmark ever.[8]
First half
The French team started the match with a 2–0 lead, and maintained a lead until the 17th minute, where Denmark started a 3–0 run and equalised at 9–9 with a penalty shot by Anders Eggert. On the next attack, Mikkel Hansen received the Danes' first two-minute suspension, allowing France to open another three-goal lead. The half time score was 15–12 in favor of France.
Second half
The second half started with France maintaining a lead of at least two goals in the first 15 minutes. But a couple of saves in a row by the well-tempered Niklas Landin Jacobsen, meant that Mikkel Hansen could equalise to 24–24 with 11 minutes to play. Still, France took the lead once again, but with five minutes remaining and the French lead at 29–27, Jérôme Fernandez was penalized with a 2-minute suspension. Denmark took advantage, scoring two goals and making it 29–29 with 3:30 remaining. In the last minute, the French found themselves one goal ahead, 31–30. The Danish coach Ulrik Wilbek used a team timeout with 25 seconds to go to prepare the team for the last attack. Three seconds were left, when the Dane Bo Spellerberg scored from left back a positional shot in the bottom of the goal for 31–31, deferring the match to overtime.
Overtime
In the 64th minute, the Danes recorded their first lead in the match when scoring 33–32, but within the next minute the French scored two goals overturning the result. The first half of the overtime ended with a French lead of 34–33.
The second half of overtime began with veteran Lars Christiansen scoring a penalty and evening the score at 34–34. The French took the lead from there, though, and secured the win at 36–34 when Thierry Omeyer saved a Mikkel Hansen 9m shot with just over one minute to go. Michael Guigou scored the last goal of the game with one second to go to the final score 37–35.[9] The match ended 37–35 in favor of France.[10]Nikola Karabatić and Mikkel Hansen, both scored 10 goals in the final, with Karabatić chosen the MVP of the championship,[11] and Hansen the best goalscorer.[12]
