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Men’s Quarterfinal Matchups: Croatia is the new favorite

Igor Vori and Croatia should easily advance to the semis

Here are the matchups for the Men’s quarterfinals on Wednesday.  Handicap (point spreads) are in parentheses

Upper Bracket
Iceland (-3)   vs. Hungary
Denmark (-2.5) vs. Sweden

Lower Bracket
France (-2) vs. Spain
Croatia (-7.5) vs. Tunisia

Updated Odds

Here are the updated odds for the 8 remaining teams to win it all:

Croatia: 1.8 to 1 (Pre-tournament: 5.5 to 1)
France:  2.8 to 1 (2 to 1)
Denmark: 4 to 1 (3.5 to 1)
Spain: 11 to 1 (5 to 1)
Iceland: 14 to 1 (19 to 1)
Sweden: 39 to 1 (40 to 1)
Hungary: 50 to 1 (40 to 1)
Tunisia: 2000 to 1 (550 to 1)

Worth noting:  Croatia is the new favorite and they clearly played the best in group play.  Assuming France survives Spain the oddsmakers seem to think that the semifinal between France and Croatia might be the real final.  Denmark is favored out of the other bracket, but Iceland may again be the surprise team.

Link to NBC schedule of online games: http://www.nbcolympics.com/online-listings/sport=handball/index.html

(Note:  If you are time shifting, be careful not to scroll down to far if you want to avoid seeing who’s in the semifinals.)

Personal note: 4 quarterfinal knockout matches to watch.  Time to head into the time shifting tank.  No twitter, facebook and email reading for this fan!