July 4, 2022 - Croatia will face the USA and two yet-to-be-revealed African teams in the 2023 Handball World Cup group stage in January. 

Croatia will play in Group G, and its opponents will be the United States of America and two African national teams - the champion and the third-placed team from the championship there, which will be held in July.

Coach Hrvoje Horvat spoke about the interesting draw: 

"We wanted to avoid the European teams from the third and fourth pot, and let me remind you that Hungary, Serbia, Slovenia, and the Netherlands were there, and we succeeded. The champion of Africa and the third-place finisher from that continent certainly deserve maximum attention. Theoretically, it can happen that it will be Egypt and Tunisia, which is a completely different story, and the draw no longer looks so simple. But we'll see what happens. The good thing about all this is that we can already start scouting and analyzing them because the championship for these national teams starts in ten days. I would only like for us to be complete and not repeat a situation like at the European Championship in Hungary when we had corona. I do not doubt that Croatia will be in good form. It's a good draw in the sequel as well. I am an optimist and believe we will be great at that championship."

At the World Cup in January next year, 32 national teams will compete, which are divided into eight groups, and the group in which Croatia is in the second round crosses with group H, where Denmark, Belgium, Bahrain, and an African national team, which will take fourth place in the continental championship.

The Handball World Cup will be held from January 11 to 29 next year.

Handball World Cup 2023 (groups):

Group A (Krakow): Spain, Montenegro, Chile, Iran

Group B (Katowice): France, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Slovenia

Group C (Göteborg): Sweden, Brazil, Africa 2, Uruguay

Group D (Kristianstad): Iceland, Portugal, Hungary, South Korea

Group E (Katowice): Germany, Qatar, Serbia, Africa 5

Group F (Krakow): Norway, Sj. Macedonia, Argentina, Netherlands

Group G (Jönköping): Africa 1, Croatia, Africa 3, USA

Group H (Malmö): Denmark, Belgium, Bahrain, Africa 4

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