Men’s national handball: The qualifying scenarios for the final stages of EURO2024

After the two victories over Belgium on the 3rd and 4th matchday of the qualifying phase, the men’s national team is for the first time in its history with a foot and a half in the final phase of EURO 2024!

Two games remain to complete the qualifiers in all groups that will be played this week.

For Greece, the games against Croatia (April 26, Chalkida) and the Netherlands (April 30, Almere) will be a celebration, because our national team will play stress-free, on the one hand because they meet two world giants of handball, on the other hand because they are in a group that who was an absolute outsider in the draw, fulfilled her duty even better.

The “Blue-Whites” caused a sensation throughout Europe and are at the top of the 5th group with 6 points in 4 games.

Greece will play these two games knowing from the start that even in case of two defeats, only if there are points and monsters in the other groups, they will not qualify for the EURO!

Of course, the “Blue and Whites” will play for victory so that nobody matters and the qualifying case ends mathematically next Wednesday. He has the psychology, the confidence and now the momentum to succeed.

If the national team wins against the mighty Croatia, it will also mathematically secure 2nd place in the group and play for first place in the away game against the Netherlands!

Clearly, 1st or 2nd place in the final stage draw automatically means promotion to the capacity groups.

If the national team ends up level on points with Croatia, they will likely end up 3rd in the group (Croatia will win in Belgium on the last matchday and pass us in the draw), but with a combination of results from 5th Game day itself, Greece will likely qualify and math.

So he goes third

In the event that the national team is defeated by both Croatia and the Netherlands, it remains at 6 points and claims one of the four tickets to be won by the 3rd of the 8 groups.

The special ranking of the 3rd place is formed only with the results between the first three teams of each group, the results with the 4th places of the groups are excluded, in the case of Greece, ie the victories against Belgium do not count.

However, the national team is currently leading the special classification with 3rd place in all groups, with 2 points (vs. Netherlands) and -4 goal difference.

Next are the Faroe Islands with 2 points and -8, in a group (4th), very balanced and open, which from the start was almost certain to give a ticket to the 3rd group.

At the moment no other team ranked 3rd in the groups has managed to get a point or points from the first two in these 4 games.

Furthermore, all teams that finish 3rd and claim their qualification have such large negative goal differences that even with a surprise win in the last two games they are likely to be level on points with Greece.

In short, besides the Faroe Islands (if they beat Ukraine), three other teams should get at least two points and do so as underdogs against the top two teams in the group for Greece to be eliminated from the EURO. whatever logical and dynamic of the countries, it seems almost impossible to happen.

Realistically, Georgia, hosts Switzerland, may be the only team able to pull off a win that would qualify them 3rd in their group.

In the game of the 1st round for the 6th group, Georgia narrowly lost away with 24:23. It’s a young and talented team that has a chance to make it. But even Georgia, down -18, will be behind Greece in the event of a win as they are sure to lose in the last game at home to strong Hungary.

In fact, the most likely scenario is that one or two teams with no points qualify for the EURO simply because they have a better goal difference.

EURO 2024 Qualifier – Ranking of 3 teams (in case Greece lose to Croatia and Netherlands)

1. Greece 2 (-4)

2. Faroe Islands 2 (-8)

3. Slovakia 0 (-18)

4. Georgia 0 (-18)

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5. Italy 0 (-18)

6. Bosnia 0 (-19)

7. Estonia 0 (-20)

8. Türkiye 0 (-26)

*The four best teams qualify for EURO 2024

Group status, results and match schedule of the first three teams

1st group

1.Portugal 8

2. North Macedonia 6

3. Türkiye 4

4. Luxembourg 0

1st matchday

• Portugal-Türkiye 44-27

2nd matchday

• Türkiye – North Macedonia 27-36

5th matchday

• Türkiye – Portugal

6th matchday

• North Macedonia – Türkiye

2nd group

1. Norway 6

2nd Serbia 6th

3rd Slovakia 2nd

4. Finland 2

1st matchday

• Norway-Slovakia 38-26

2nd matchday

• Slovakia – Serbia 21-27

5th matchday

• Slovakia Norway

6th matchday

• Serbia Slovakia

3rd group

1. Iceland 6

2. Czech Republic 6

3rd Estonia 2nd

4. Israel 2

1st matchday

• Czech Republic – Estonia 31-23

2nd matchday

• Estonia-Iceland 25-37

5th matchday

• Estonia Czech Republic

6th matchday

• Iceland-Estonia

4th group

1. Austria 8

2. Romania 4

3. Faroe Islands 2

4. Ukraine 2

*Except for 1st position which was judged, all other positions are open.

1st matchday

• Austria – Romania 36-32
• Ukraine – Faroe Islands 29-25

2nd matchday

• Faroe Islands – Austria 28-30
• Romania-Ukraine 34-26

3rd matchday

• Ukraine-Austria 31-38
• Faroe Islands – Romania 28-26

4th matchday

• Romania – Faroe Islands 25-17
• Austria-Ukraine 31-28

5th matchday

• Faroe Islands – Ukraine
• Romania – Austria

6th matchday

• Ukraine – Romania
• Austria – Faroe Islands

5th group

1. Greece 6

2nd Netherlands 5th

3. Croatia 5

4. Belgium 0

1st matchday

• Croatia – Greece 33-25

2nd matchday

• Greece – Netherlands 32-28

5th matchday

• Greece – Croatia

6th matchday

• Holland Greece

6th group

1. Hungary 8

2. Switzerland 4

3. Agriculture 2

4. Lithuania 2

1st matchday

• Switzerland – Georgia 24-23

2nd matchday

• Georgia – Hungary 24-41

5th matchday

• Georgia – Switzerland

6th matchday

• Hungary-Georgia

7th group

1. Slovenia 8

2. Montenegro 4

3. Bosnia 4

4. Kosovo 0

1st matchday

• Slovenia – Bosnia 28-20

2nd matchday

• Bosnia-Montenegro 25-36

5th matchday

• Bosnia-Slovenia

6th matchday

• Montenegro-Bosnia

8th group

1. France 8

2. Poland 4

3. Italy 4

4. Latvia 0

1st matchday

• Poland – Italy 30-23

2nd matchday

• Italy – France 29-40

5th matchday

• Italy – Poland

6th matchday

• France – Italy

SOURCE: NO