Belarus qualify for Women’s World Championship Play-offs

Belarus have kept their chance to qualify for the Women’s World Championship 2019 in Japan by winning the qualification tournament in Greece on Sunday and qualifying for the play-offs in June.

The team proved to be unbeatable over the course of the event, first beating Portugal on Friday 31:23, then Greece on Saturday 28:18 and eventually Italy on Sunday 35:26.

With four points on their account, Greece kept the chance to also qualify for the play-offs as the best second ranked team of all four qualification groups.

The tournaments in groups 1, 2 and 4 are played from 30 November to 2 December.

In total, five teams qualify from this first qualification phase, the four group winners and the best second ranked team, for the play-offs at which they will be pitted against 12 teams that come from the Women’s EHF EURO 2018 which is set to start in France on 29 November.

The play-offs to the Women’s World Championship 2019 are played in June 2019 over two legs.

There are three criteria in place to determine the best second ranked team in the first qualification phase:

• higher number of points obtained in the group matches,
• superior goal difference after the group matches,
• higher number of goals scored in the group matches.

If these criteria fail to lead to a decision, a draw will determine which second-ranked team joins the four group winners into the play-offs. This draw would take place at the EHF Office in Vienna on 3 December, a day after all matches in the four groups have been completed.