Denmark’s men’s and women’s teams will defend their titles in their respective finals at the European Beach Handball Championships in Varna, Bulgaria ©EHF

Denmark’s men’s and women’s teams will defend their titles in their respective finals at the European Beach Handball Championships in Varna, Bulgaria.

The men will face Croatia, the record four-times champions, while the women will face Germany in their gold medal match.

It will be Germany’s first appearance in the women’s final in 14 years.

In the men’s event Denmark had to dig deep to get past Russia 2-1.

The Russians, appearing in their tenth semi-final, won the opening set 18-16 before the defending champions responded to take the second 19-16 and then winning the decider 8-6.

Denmark's defending men's and women's champions both reached their gold medal matches tomorrow at the European Beach Handball Championships in Varna, Bulgaria ©EHF
Denmark's defending men's and women's champions both reached their gold medal matches tomorrow at the European Beach Handball Championships in Varna, Bulgaria ©EHF 

Croatia had a more straightforward task in beating Spain 25-24, 28-20.

In the women’s semi-finals Denmark edged past Norway 23-12, 22-18, having had to come from four points behind midway through the second set.

Germany won their first set against Spain 22-18, but lost the next 27-11 before winning the shoot-out 5-2.

The Germans are into their fourth women’s final, having won the title once so far in 2006.

In the men’s opening quarter-finals Denmark beat Portugal 2-0, Croatia defeated Norway 2-0, Spain, winners in 2002 and 2017, overcame Poland 2-1 and Russia beat France 2-0.

The women’s quarter-finals saw Denmark beat Poland 2-0, Germany overcome Hungary, runners-up at the last edition in 2019, 2-1, Norway beat 2019 bronze medallists The Netherlands 2-1 and Spain defeat Portugal 2-0.