Two right wings, a line player and a goalkeeper take the EHF EURO 2018 fate in their hands

One goalkeeping prodigy, two right wings and a line player will leave a direct impact on the Men’s EHF EURO 2018 even before they take to the court at the tournament between 12 and 28 January as Kristian Sæverås from Norway, Gergely Harsanyi from Hungary, Gasper Marguc from Slovenia and Igor Vori from Croatia* will help to conduct the preliminary round draw on Friday, 23 June at the Lisinski Concert Hall in Zagreb.

The draw will be streamed live on ehf-euro.com from 19:00 hrs local time and the streaming will also be available on the EHF EURO Facebook page and YouTube channel.

Together with EHF President Michael Wiederer each player will draw one pot.

First up on stage will be Kristian Sæverås, who will draw the remaining two teams in the Pot 4. As the tournament’s organisers have used their right to allocate one team in each of the four venues Slovenia will play in Group C in Zagreb, while Hungary in Group D in Varazdin.

Sæverås, who will turn 21 just one day before the draw, has yet to make the name for himself in the senior national team of the current world championship runners-up, but he is touted to become a stalwart between the Norwegian posts in the years to come.

Norway, seeded in Pot 3, have been allocated to Group B in Porec and the preliminary round destinations for the remaining three teams – Serbia, Montenegro and Czech Republic will be drawn by Gergely Harsányi.

The experienced Hungarian right wing, who twice finished fourth at the Olympic Games with Hungary in 2012 is just one goal shy of the 400-goal milestone in 179 games with the national team.

Freshly crowned European club champion to decide the last pot

The EHF EURO 2018 hosts will start their journey in Group A in Split, while the fate of other three teams in Pot 1 (the defending champions from Germany, reigning world champions France and Spain) will be sealed by one of the most dangerous left hand of the European handball courts, Gasper Marguc.

The Veszprém player contributed with 38 goals to a historic bronze medal for Slovenia at the last World Championship as the national team’s best scorer.

The last player on stage will be Croatian line player legend Igor Vori who takes care of all four teams in Pot 2 – Denmark, Belarus, Sweden and FYR Macedonia.

36-year-old Vori returned to his home town Zagreb in 2016 after he had played in Germany and France for several years. 

With the Croatian national team he has won literally everything there is to win, including gold at the 2004 Olympic Games, gold at the World Championship 2003 and silver at EHF EUROs in 2008 and 2010.

The complete draw procedure can also be downloaded.

The three best teams from each preliminary round group will reach the main round as teams from Group A (Split) and Group B (Porec) will continue in Zagreb, while teams from Group C (Zagreb) and Group D (Varazdin) will play in Varazdin.

The 5/6 Placement Match, both semi-finals as well as the all-important bronze medal match and final will be hosted by Arena Zagreb.

*an earlier version of this article stated that Ivan Cupic would attend the draw. The Croatian Handball Federation has announced that Ivan Cupic cannot attend because of family reasons. Igor Vori will attend the draw instead.