Following the final tournament draw for the Men’s EHF EURO 2022 last week, the European Handball Federation has confirmed the match timings and the final playing schedule for the preliminary round.

The tournament’s official opening match will be Hungary vs Netherlands in the 20,000-capacity Budapest Arena in group B on 13 January at 20:30 (all times CET).

However, defending champions Spain will enter the arena a bit earlier: Their opener against the Czech Republic in group E throws off at 18:00 on 13 January. World champions Denmark also play on 13 January, at 20:30 in group A against Montenegro.

All matches in the preliminary round start either at 18:00 or 20:30. In the main round, the playing times are 15:30, 18:00 and 20:30. The matches will be assigned accordingly.

The semi-finals on 28 January throw off at 18:00 and 20:30 respectively, and the final on 30 January will start at 18:00.

The updated match schedule is available for download.

Groups, venues and tickets

The 24 participating teams have been drawn into six preliminary round groups of four sides, from which the top two squads in each will progress to the main round.

• Group A: Slovenia, Denmark, North Macedonia, Montenegro
• Group B: Portugal, Hungary, Iceland, Netherlands
• Group C: Croatia, Serbia, France, Ukraine
• Group D: Germany, Austria, Belarus, Poland
• Group E: Spain, Sweden, Czech Republic, Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Group F: Norway, Russia, Slovakia, Lithuania

Each of the host countries will be home to three preliminary round groups. In Hungary, group A will play in Debrecen, group B will be in Budapest and group C will be in Szeged. In Slovakia, group D and E will be based in Bratislava, and group F will play in Kosice.

The two main round groups will be hosted in Bratislava and Budapest, before the top six teams converge in Budapest for the final weekend that will determine the winners through to sixth position on the ranking.

CTS EVENTIM is the European Handball Federation’s official ticketing partner for the EHF EURO and all tickets are available at tickets.eurohandball.com. An FAQ section is also available on the website. Day tickets for all venues will be available in autumn 2021.

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