The draw for the World Handball Championship, which will be played for the first time in two countries, was held today in Copenhagen.
The Croatia Men’s Handball Team will play in Group B of the World Championship against Spain, Macedonia, Iceland, Bahrain and Japan. The draw was decided this afternoon at 12:30 at the City Hall in Copenhagen, reports Gol.hr on June 25, 2018.
The World Handball Championship is scheduled for February 9 to 27, 2019, in Denmark and Germany and will be played in two countries for the first time in history.
The night before the draw, the Croatian Handball Federation hoped that the International Handball Federation (IHF) would place the ‘Cowboys’ into the group playing in Munich to be closer to the Croatian population in Germany. It was then automatically known that Croatia would not be drawn into the group with Denmark, Sweden, and Germany who will play in Berlin.
The format of the competition has changed since the World Championship held in France two years ago. This time around, there is no knockout phase immediately after the group stage, but the best teams advance and create two new groups of six participants from which the first two teams will go to the semifinals.
The two groups will be played in Cologne and Hamburg, and Group B will cross with Group A, where France, Germany, Russia and Serbia are likely to go to the second round. Anyway, the Cowboys will have an awfully tough road on the way to the semifinals.
World Handball Championship 2019:
Group A (Berlin): France, Russia, Germany, Serbia, Brazil, South Korea
Group B (Munich): Spain, Croatia, Macedonia, Iceland, Bahrain, Japan
Group C (Herning): Denmark, Norway, Austria, Tunisia, Chile, Saudi Arabia
Group D (Copenhagen): Sweden, Hungary, Qatar, Argentina, Egypt, Angola
