Seven teams will celebrate progression in the Men’s World Championship 2023 qualification play-offs this weekend, while seven will bow out of the race for the final tournament in Poland and Sweden as part 1 of the final stage of qualifiers concludes.
Seven matches will be played on Saturday and Sunday, starting with the first throwing off in Bucharest at 17:00 CEST on Saturday and finishing with the final game at 18:40 CEST in Tallin on Sunday. The 14 teams participating in this stage started their ventures on Wednesday and Thursday with the reverse legs of the games to be played this weekend.
The winners of each tie will be determined based on the final aggregate scores of both legs. If an aggregate score in any tie ends equal, the winner will be determined based on who scored more goals away.
All matches will be streamed live on EHFTV.
- while six teams will book places in part 2 of the play-offs — the final stage on the path to the World Championship — the winner of the Slovakia vs Belgium double-header will qualify directly for the final tournament due to the suspension of Russia from the competition. Faroe Islands and Finland have progressed straight to part 2 as they were due to play Belarus and Ukraine, respectively, in part 1
- Austria, Israel, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia, Greece and North Macedonia all won their first-leg matches, with Slovenia the only away team to take the victory while all other winners played at home
- Slovenia have the narrowest lead to defend, after winning 29:28 in Italy on Wednesday. Austria beat Estonia 35:33 in Bregenz while Slovakia defeated Belgium 28:26 in Topolcany for the next two closest advantages
- North Macedonia took the biggest win in the first leg, beating Romania 30:22 in Skopje
- with 13 goals, Greece’s Charalampos Mallios was the top scorer of the first leg across all seven matches. The 34-year-old centre back is now second top scorer of the qualifiers overall, behind Kosovo’s Drenit Tahirukaj — whose team were eliminated in phase 1 of the qualifiers
- the last play-offs in the World Championship 2023 qualifiers will take place in mid-April and follow the same home-and-away format as this stage. Faroe Islands, Finland and the nine top-ranked sides from the EHF EURO 2022, aside from those already qualified for the World Championship (Denmark, Sweden, Poland, Spain, France and Norway), await the winners of these part 1 ties in that stage
Shaky debut win for Zorman
Slovenia are the team with the most recent success of all participating in this stage of the qualifiers, having reached the semi-finals at the EHF EURO 2020 and taken the bronze medal at the World Championship 2017 in France.
The first-leg match against Italy on Wednesday was the side's first under the guidance of new coach Uros Zorman — four-time EHF Champions League winner as a player and most-capped for Slovenia. While the team celebrated a victory to mark that milestone, it came down to the wire, with a double strike from Aleks Vlah and the win-securing goal from Tilen Kodrin in the final minutes.
Playing at home in Celje on Sunday, Slovenia will hope for a clearer victory to cement their place in part 2 of the final play-off stage.
Men’s World Championship 2023 qualification play-offs — phase 2 part 1, second leg
Saturday 19 March
Romania vs North Macedonia, 17:00 CET, live on EHFTV — first leg 22:30
Bosnia and Herzegovina vs Greece, 20:00 CET, live on EHFTV — first leg 17:24
Belgium vs Slovakia, 20:10 CET, live on EHFTV — first leg 26:28
Sunday 20 March
Estonia vs Austria, 18:40 CET, live on EHFTV — first leg 33:35
Switzerland vs Portugal, 14:30 CET, live on EHFTV — first leg 26:33
Slovenia vs Italy, 14:30 CET, live on EHFTV — first leg 29:28
Lithuania vs Israel, 15:00 CET, live on EHFTV — first leg 24:28
