Hong Kong men's handball team captain, Freddie Tse, said he hopes his team will collect themselves and go for bronze on Monday, after suffering a tight defeat to giants Anhui Province at the National Games.

The SAR - reaching the final four for the first time ever at the tournament - lost 24-21 in the semi-finals in a hotly-contested affair at the Kai Tak Arena on Saturday.

The home side only trailed 11-12 after the break, even managing a brief lead early in the second half before Anhui powered their way through to victory.

Tse said after the game that the result showed that Anhui were indeed the stronger side.

"We were a darkhorse making it to the semi-finals, we know going in we're not as strong as Anhui," he told reporters.

"They further enhanced the intensity for this game, and you can see that we struggled on both offence and defence, and our rhythm and stamina were a bit off."

The captain noted that Sunday is a day off for all teams and he expressed hope that his teammates will regroup and achieve their goal of making the podium.

The SAR will battle Beijing - who won silver at the Games four years ago - for bronze at 6pm on Monday, having lost 19-35 to the men from the capital in the group stage last week.