Your guide to the Men’s EHF EURO 2020 Qualifiers

On Wednesday, 24 October, round 1 of the Men’s EHF EURO 2020 Qualifiers starts. It is the first of six rounds overall which will eventually see 20 teams qualifying for Men’s EHF EURO 2020 in Sweden, Austria and Norway.

• This is the biggest qualification phase to date in EHF EURO history with 32 teams, split in eight groups of four teams each, taking the courts across Europe
• The first two teams of each group qualify for Men’s EHF EURO 2020 and so do the best four third-ranked teams. Attention: To determine the best third-ranked only the matches against the teams ranked first and second will be taken into account
• At the same time, the three lowest ranked teams among the fourth-ranked teams will have to play the EHF EURO Qualifiers ‘relegation round’ in which they face the two winners of phase 1 of the Men’s EHF EURO 2022 Qualifiers and the winning team of the Emerging Nations Championship 2019.
• Parallel to the qualifiers, the newly-installed EHF EURO Cup, featuring 2020 host nations Sweden, Austria and Norway plus 2018 champions Spain will also make its debut
• All matches will be streamed live on ehfTV.

Full schedule

Wednesday 24 October

Highlights

• In match no.1 following the dismissal of head coach Ljubomir Vranjes, Hungary meet Slovakia in group 7. This encounter sees the two co-hosts of EHF EURO 2022 facing each other. Slovakia won the last competitive match between the two, 31:30 in the EHF EURO 2014 Qualification.
• Five teams that already played the first qualification phase and/or the Emerging Nations Championship are in action on this day. Kosovo play away in Poland, Greece travel to Iceland, Italy play against Russia and the Faroe Islands face Montenegro
• Iceland coach Gudmundur Gudmundsson enjoys his first EHF EURO Qualifier since his return to the bench of his home country earlier this year. His team faces Greece in group 3.
• Sweden. Spain. Revenge. Sweden’s opener in the EHF EURO Cup is also the re-match of the EHF EURO 2018 Final which Spain won 29:23

Your TV schedule for Round 1

Thursday 28 September

Highlights

• World champions France start their EHF EURO 2020 Qualifiers campaign with a home match against Lithuania. Both teams also faced in the 2018 qualifiers, with France winning both matches.
• Netherlands and Switzerland are two of the teams that have a chance of benefitting from the increased number of federations qualifying for EHF EURO 2020. The Dutch play at home against Estonia; Switzerland have a tough match ahead of them, travelling to Croatia to meet the multiple EHF EURO medallists

Your TV schedule for Round 1

Round 2

Highlights

• Round 2 sees five matches played on Saturday 27 October and 13, including two of the EHF EURO Cup, on Sunday 28 October
• On 27 October, the Faroe Islands face Denmark to which they politically belong while enjoying a very high degree of autonomy. Despite being a home match for the Faroe Islands, the encounter takes place in Skjern on the Danish mainland.
• At the EHF EURO Cup, 2018 EURO champions Spain face 2017 World Championship silver medallists Norway

Your TV schedule for Round 2