PARIS, Jan 23 ― Olympic gold medallists Denmark and European champions Germany crashed out of the world handball championships at the last-16 stage yesterday.

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 tomorrow 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.

The Qataris drew widespread criticism two years ago for stacking their squad with foreign players when they hosted the tournament.

However, this time around, the tiny Gulf state had remodelled its squad with just two Europeans in the ranks ― Bosnian goalkeeper Danijel Saric and French winger Bertrand Roine.

"Qatar deserves respect,” said coach Valero Rivera. 

"Only three teams, of which Qatar is one, have qualified for the quarter-finals of the last three international tournaments.”

France and Hungary are the other two with Croatia later becoming the fourth when they made the quarter-finals with a 21-19 win over Egypt.

"We have worked hard to achieve respect,” added Rivera who has been in charge of the Qatar team since 2013. ― AFP