Denmark's Mikkel Hansen retires a winner with handball gold

LILLE, France -- Denmark clinched its second men's Olympic handball gold medal, defeating Germany 39-26 in the final as one of the sport's greatest -- left back Mikkel Hansen -- retired on a high Sunday.

It was Denmark's second title in the event in the past three Games, having played in all three finals in Rio -- where they won -- Tokyo and Paris.

Germany, who knocked out defending champion France in the quarterfinals, never were in the mix and trailed throughout after leveling the score at 1-1.

The Tokyo silver medalists racked up goals at breakneck speed while the Germans struggled to break through the Danish defense, trailing by nine points after 30 minutes -- the biggest ever halftime deficit in an Olympic gold-medal match.

Germany, who won bronze in Rio, tried to make headway as the game wore on. Center back Juri Knorr poured in six points while right back Renars Uscins and line player Jannik Kohlbacher each contributed four.

But they were no match for the undefeated Danes, notably right back Mathias Gidsel, who scored 11 goals.

"From the start to the end they were the better team and we couldn't reach our normal level of performance, we played really bad and of course it's like a nightmare, we don't understand how this could happen ... we maybe played our worst game in a long time," said Knorr, Germany's top scorer.

It was the first time since Croatia won gold at the Athens Games in 2004 that a handball team had won the gold without losing a single Olympic match.

Spain edged Slovenia 23-22 in the bronze-medal match earlier Sunday.