After the last main round matches of the EHF EURO 2022, all but one question have been answered on the way to the final stage of the European qualification for the IHF Men’s World Championship 2023.
The draw event for both the first and second parts of the qualification will take place on Saturday 29 January in the afternoon at the Budapest Handball Arena.
First matches in just six weeks
After the preliminary phase it became clear that Slovenia, Belarus, Slovakia, Portugal, Austria, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Ukraine, who finished in 16th to 24th positions, will have to fight for a place in the first part of qualification phase two.
The draw on Saturday will pit these nine teams against Switzerland as well as the eight qualifiers from the first phase, which ended two weeks ago. These eight teams are Greece, Belgium, Finland, Estonia, Romania, Israel, the Faroe Islands and Italy.
The 18 teams will play in a play-off format with nine tickets for the second part of phase 2 at stake. The first leg is scheduled for 16 and 17 March and the second leg will follow on 19 and 20 March. The teams drawn first in each pairing will have the home right in the first leg.
Pot 1: AUT, BIH, BLR, LTU, MKD, POR, UKR, SLO, SVK
Pot 2: BEL, EST, FAR, FIN, GRE, ISR, ITA, ROU, SUI
Second part to be played in April
The three top ranked teams at EHF EURO 2022, excluding Poland, Sweden (both co-hosts) and Denmark (reigning champions), will qualify directly for the World Championship. After the main round this means that apart from Sweden and Denmark France and Spain have also secured berths for next year’s tournament. However, the last direct ticket was only given on Friday to Norway, who won the 5/6 place match against Iceland.
The loser of this game (Iceland), together with the remaining eight teams from the positions 7-15 (Germany, Croatia, Russia, Netherlands, Montenegro, Czech Republic, Serbia and Hungary) will enter the second part of the qualification phase 2.
The second part of the qualification will also be played in a knock-out format over two legs (13/14 April – 16/17 April).
Pot 1: CRO, CZE, GER, HUN, ISL, MNE, NED, SRB, RUS
Pot 2: nine winners of the Qualification phase 2 part 1
