Close duels on road to Men's World Championship play-offs

The eight teams progressing this weekend then need to clear one more hurdle on their way to the final tournament in Germany in January 2027, and they already know who their opponents will be in phase 3, generally known as the play-offs, in mid-May. The draw for the play-offs took place during the Men's EHF EURO 2026 last January.

• Serbia (+17), Bosnia and Hercegovina (+13), and Poland (+9) each built an all-but-decisive lead in the first leg, but in no other of the eight ties the difference between the teams is bigger than five goals ahead of the second leg
• French-born line player Dragan Pechmalbec found the net 10 times to give Serbia the biggest win in the first leg — 42:25 against Lithuania, with Sunday's return leg in Utena now looking a formality
• centre back Mislav Grgic netted eight times and was the top scorer for the Bosnian team in their 34:21 home victory over Kosovo, which only took shape in the later stages of the match after a close first half (15:13); the teams meet again in Prishtina on Sunday afternoon
• Poland can go confidently into the return leg Sunday after they did the damage in Latvia already in the first half (17:12) on their way to a 33:24 win, with left wing Mikolaj Czaplinksi scoring 10 goals
• Romania took home a 37:32 victory from Türkiye on Thursday afternoon, but will still be wary ahead of Sunday's return leg in Buzau as their advantage could have been much more favourable (see below)

• Montenegro returned from their Nordic trip with a four-goal advantage (36:32) over Finland, as Luka Radović (nine goals), Radojica Čepić and Branko Vujović (both eight) combined for 25 of their team's 36 goals; the return in Podgorica is on Sunday.
• three teams enter the second leg with an overall lead of just three goals, making for exciting return legs this weekend
• Greece defeated Belgium 29:26 despite Raphaël Kotters' 13-goal outing, but the hosts didn't add to their advantage after the break (16:13) with a tense return in Hasselt on Saturday waiting
• Slovakia won 27:24 against Ukraine — which saw Ihor Turchenko score 11 goals — but held a bigger advantage at half-time (16:11) than at the end of Wednesday's game, making Sunday's return in Povazska Bystrica a close affair
• Israel won the first of their two duels in Georgia 32:29 on Thursday, but had to come back from 16:15 down at half-time and saw Georgia's goal getter Giorgi Tskhovrebadze score 12 times, setting up a promising return leg on the same court on Saturday afternoon

Can Türkiye stretch their comeback into the second leg in Romania? 

Like many teams carrying a first-leg lead into the decisive match this weekend, Romania won't feel completely secure yet when hosting Türkiye on Sunday. Romania start the match with a healthy-looking five-goal overall lead from their 37:32 win in Merkez/Bolu on Thursday, but the closing stages of that match will make them realise how quickly such lead can disappear.

Romania were even up by nine goals (37:28) with just under four minutes left to play, but then were shut out completely by the Turkish hosts, who had a 4:0 run themselves to reduce the gap to just five.

That's still a mountain to climb, but not as insurmountable as a nine-goal deficit.

photos © Kalle Parkkinen (main); Gigalo (first in-text); Turkiye Hentbol Federasyonu (last in-text)