Hot favourites Brazil and Croatia remained undefeated, the only teams to do so in the men’s competition,and reached the semi-finals of the World Championships in Heraklion.

The Brazilians, who boast the best defensive recordin the tournament,rallied past Spain with evergreen Gil Pires scoring 20 points and Nailson Amaral adding 10 more for a comfortable win in straight sets.

Next for the defending champs comes Denmark, who needed a shoot-out final set to defeat Uruguay for which Mayado's 21 points. Jensen bravely defended Denmark’s last defensive line making 10 saves (32% efficiency).

Croatia beat Norway 2-0 mainly thanks toGoricanec’s22 and Finek’s19 points, while Greece knocked out Qatar.

Results

Croatia - Norway 2-0 (24-22, 28-20)

Greece - Qatar 2-1 (20-21, 19-14, 15-14)

Spain - Brazil 0-2 (11-20, 14-22)

Uruguay - Denmark 1-2 (16-21, 21-20, 6-9)