European Qualifiers for 2023 WCh which will be played in Sweden and Poland are now over and we are happy to say that a very good week for our SEHA – Gazprom League national teams is behind us. It’s time for the recap!

After a 24:24 draw in the Czech Republic in the first leg, North Macedonia managed to deliver a better performance in the second leg celebrating 27:25 at home and booking a spot in the group stage of the competition. Filip Taleski netted six goals for Macedonians in that key second leg while former SEHA star-player Filip Kuzmanovski led them with nine.

Croatia delivered two dominant performances against Finland reaching the group stage of the competition with an aggregate score of 70:43. Everything was working perfectly for coach Hrvoje Horvat and his guys who have proved they’ll have a lot to say in January in Poland and Sweden.

Serbia managed to reach two victories against Slovenia reaching the second leg with an aggregate score of 57:51. Former SEHA – Gazprom League player Petar Djordjic delivered a splendid outing in the first leg in Slovenia scoring eight goals and being their key player in an important win, which opened the door for them and created an opportunity to deliver a strong outing in front of home fans in Kragujevac eventually securing the spot in Poland and Sweden.

After a minimum win away from home against Israel, Hungary managed to deliver a much better performance in front of their fans, especially in the second half, in the end easily cruising towards the group stage after 31:22 win.

In other matches, Montenegro managed to get past Greece after a quality second leg performance at home while Portugal knocked Netherlands out of the competition with an incredible performance and 35:28 win away from home after the loss in Portimao in the first leg. Germany was better than Faroe Islands and Iceland cruised past Austria.

Croatia, Serbia, North Macedonia, Hungary, Montenegro, Portugal, Germany and Iceland have that way joined Poland, Sweden, Spain, Norway, Denmark, France and Belgium on the list of countries that will represent Europe in the upcoming 2023 handball WCh.

Photo credit: kolektiffimages