Summer of handball continues with fresh talent in Croatia

The next generation of international handball stars will have their first chance to shine on 9 to 19 August as 16 nations go in search of Men’s 18 EHF EURO glory in Croatia.

Varazdin and Koprivnica play host to 56 matches between Europe’s traditional powerhouses and a few surprise contenders, all of which will be streamed live on ehfTV.com.

Two years ago, France won the Men’s 18 EHF EURO 2016, which was also played in Croatia, but a fresh batch of talent means it is always difficult to predict which team will emerge victorious.

France will hope to emulate the team of two years ago, which beat Croatia in a goal-fest of a final, 40:38.

As hosts, Croatia will always fancy themselves as contenders and should draw inspiration from Slovenia’s Under 20 team, which won EURO gold on home court last month.

The ‘usual suspects’ of Croatia, France, Denmark, Germany and Slovenia are certain to be in the mix, while Portugal’s sensational run to the M20 EHF EURO semi-finals will give the entire field hope of causing an upset or two.

Furthermore, there is much more than podium spots to fight for. From the Men’s 18 EHF EURO, the first 11 teams will qualify directly for the Men’s 19 World Championship 2019 in FYR Macedonia. This places additional importance on the cross matches for positions 9 to 12 and the 11/12 placement match.

Playing format

On the fringes of the Men’s EHF EURO in January, the 16 participants were drawn into four preliminary round groups of four teams, with each team playing each other on 9, 10 and 12 August – Groups A/B in Koprivnica and C/D in Varazdin.

The winners and runners-up of each group go through to the main round, while the third and fourth-placed teams go into the intermediate round and eventually play for 9-16 place.

Those teams which finish first and second in the main round groups then play-off in the semi-finals on 17 August, followed by the finals day on Sunday 19 August.

The groups are:
Group A: Croatia (CRO), Serbia (SRB), Portugal (POR), Israel (ISR)
Group B: France (FRA), Denmark (DEN), Norway (NOR), Romania (ROU)
Group C: Germany (GER), Spain (ESP), Russia (RUS), Hungary (HUN)
Group D: Slovenia (SLO), Iceland (ISL), Sweden (SWE), Poland (POL)

The full playing schedule can be found here.

Follow the Men’s 18 EHF EURO

Official website: https://m18euro2018.com/
Playing schedule: http://www.eurohandball.com/ech/18/men/2018/round/1/Final+Tournament
ehfTV: https://www.ehftv.com/int/livestream-schedule/2018/august
Event Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/M18EHFEURO2018/