(BEIJING, August 23) -- Iceland could make history at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games in the Men's Handball gold medal match on Sunday by winning the first ever Olympic gold for their country. The Handball final will take place at the National Indoor Stadium against favorite France.

　　Gold medal match

　　France vs. Iceland

　　History may be written in this match. In the history of the Olympic Games, Iceland has never won a gold medal and has made it to the podium only three times for one silver and two bronzes.

　　France's best Olympic Handball result dates back to 1992 when they won bronze at Barcelona. They also met Iceland in that match and beat them 24-20.

　　France dropped only one point en route to the final when they tied 30--all with Poland in their last preliminary match. They beat Russia 27-24 in the quarterfinals and eased past Croatia 25-23 in the semis.

　　Iceland came third in their group. The Nordic team beat Poland 32-30 in the quarterfinals and crushed Spain 36-30 in the semis.

　　Iceland can pride themselves on two of the tournament's three top scorers. Snorri Steinn Gudjonsson has 44 goals and Gudjon Valur Sigurdsson 40.

　　France's first choice goalkeeper Thierry Omeyer is slightly ahead of his Icelandic counterpart Bjorgvin Pall Gustavsson. Omeyer has saved 39 per cent of all shots, Gustavsson 33 per cent.

　　Iceland won the last encounter between the two at a major international tournament when they beat France 32-24 in a group match at the 2007 world championships.

　　Bronze medal match

　　Croatia vs. Spain

　　Croatia missed their chance to become the first nation to successfully defend the Olympic Men's Handball title when they lost 25-23 to France in the semifinals on Friday. Spain lost their semifinal 36-30 to Iceland.

　　Even if Croatia wins bronze, it is going to be the team's worst Olympic Handball result. In their two previous Olympics (Athens 2004 and Atlanta 1996) they won gold.

　　Spain's best has been bronze at Sydney 2000 and Atlanta 1996.

　　The Croatian players are hard to stop when they manage to get the ball to the 6m line. They scored with 43 of 52 shots (83 per cent) from that position.

　　Croatia beat Spain 31-29 in a preliminary match.

　　Placement match 7-8

　　Denmark vs. the Republic of Korea

　　European champions Denmark lost their first placement match against Russia 28-27 and are now playing for seventh. After having won medals at the last three major international Handball tournaments (bronze at 2006 Euro champs, Bronze at the 2007 worlds and gold at this year's Euro champs) the team failed to live up to expectations.

　　The ROK won their preliminary group only to find out that a single bad half in the quarterfinal against Spain and an uninspired performance in the first placement match they lost 29-26 to Poland left them competing for seventh.

　　Placement match 5-6

　　Russia vs. Poland

　　Russia won their placement match 28-27 against European champions Denmark thanks to a jump shot from the 9m line from right back Alexey Kamanin (RUS) with only seconds remaining. Playing for fifth place will still be a disappointment considering two podium finishes in the last two Olympics (bronze at Athens 2004 and gold at Sydney 2000).

　　Key players are right back Konstantin Igropulo (RUS) who has scored 31 goals and left back Alexey Rastvortsev (RUS) who is the specialist for long-distance shots. He has scored 20 of his 25 goals from the 9m line.

　　Poland lost 32-30 to Iceland in the quarterfinals and then beat the Republic of Korea 29-26 in their placement match. After a 28-year-absence from the Olympics a fifth place at Beijing would be Poland's second best Olympic result after a bronze medal in 1976 in Montreal but still falls short of the 2007 World Champs silver medalists' expectations.