Handball European Championship 2018 / qualification

This page describes the qualification for the 2018 European Men's Handball Championship , which will take place in Croatia .

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16 national teams will take part in the 2018 European Championship. Of the 38 registered teams, the host Croatia qualified directly. The other 37 nations have to qualify for the tournament.

A list was created according to the 2014/15 ranking of the EHF men's national teams. Of these, the last nine teams first had to compete in three groups of three in the first phase of qualification. The group winners have to play against the three worst-placed teams from the 2nd qualifying round for the EHF EURO 2016 in play-off games. The best 25 teams are immediately seeded for the second qualifying round. This results in seven groups of four teams each, which compete against each other in the championship system with a return leg. The respective group winners and runners-up as well as the best group third are qualified for the final round of the 2016 European Championship.

1st qualifying round

Group A

Play date	Home team		Away team	Result	Match report
10/30/2014	Greece	-	Republic of Cyprus	27:25	Match report
11/02/2014	Republic of Cyprus	-	Greece	17:23	Match report
04/29/2015	Republic of Cyprus	-	Belgium	17:26	Match report
05/02/2015	Belgium	-	Cyprus	30:20	Match report
06/10/2015	Belgium	-	Greece	30:25	Match report
06/14/2015	Greece	-	Belgium	29:25	Match report

Pl.	country	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
01.	Belgium	04th	03	00	01	0111: 9100	+20	06th
02.	Greece	04th	03	00	01	0104: 9700	+7	06th
03.	Cyprus	04th	00	00	04th	0079: 1060	−27	00

Group B

Play date	Home team		Away team	Result	Match report
October 29, 2014	Estonia	-	Georgia	28:26	Match report
11/02/2014	Georgia	-	Estonia	29:27	Match report
04/30/2015	Georgia	-	Luxembourg	17:16	Match report
05/03/2015	Luxembourg	-	Georgia	29:20	Match report
06/10/2015	Luxembourg	-	Estonia	26:31	Match report
06/13/2015	Estonia	-	Luxembourg	26:29	Match report

Pl.	country	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
01.	Luxembourg	04th	02	00	02	0100: 9400	+6	04th
02.	Estonia	04th	02	00	02	0112: 1100	+2	04th
03.	Georgia	04th	02	00	02	0092: 1000	−8	04th

Group C

Play date	Home team		Away team	Result	Match report
October 29, 2014	Romania	-	Kosovo	36:24	Match report
11/01/2014	Kosovo	-	Romania	16:30	Match report
04/29/2015	Kosovo	-	Italy	22:29	Match report
05/03/2015	Italy	-	Kosovo	35:26	Match report
06/10/2015	Italy	-	Romania	22:28	Match report
06/14/2015	Romania	-	Italy	44:25	Match report

Pl.	country	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
01.	Romania	04th	04th	00	00	0138: 8700	+51	08th
02.	Italy	04th	02	00	02	0111: 1200	−9	04th
03.	Kosovo	04th	00	00	04th	0088: 1300	−42	00

Play-off games

Qualifying group winners: Luxembourg , Romania , Belgium   

Three worst-placed teams in the 2nd qualifying round for EURO 2016 : Finland , Israel , Turkey   

The draw was on June 23, 2015 in Vienna.

	total		First leg	Return leg
Luxembourg	52:55	Finland	23:28	29:27
Israel	48:62	Romania	27:30	21:32
Turkey	50:66	Belgium	28:37	22:29

2nd qualifying round

The draw took place on April 14, 2016 in Dubrovnik .

The participating teams were divided into four pots according to their performance at the 2016 European Championship, the associated qualification and the first qualifying round.

Group place 1	Germany	France	Spain	Denmark	Poland	Sweden	Iceland
Group place 2	North Macedonia	Russia	Norway	Hungary	Slovenia	Belarus	Austria
Group place 3	Serbia	Czech Republic	Montenegro	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Netherlands	Portugal	Lithuania
Group place 4	Slovakia	Latvia	Ukraine	Switzerland	Belgium	Finland	Romania

Group 1

Pl.	country	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
01.	Denmark	06th	05	01	00	0194: 1350	+59	0011: 1000
02.	Hungary	06th	04th	01	01	0174: 1560	+18	0009: 3000
03.	Netherlands	06th	02	00	04th	0155: 1790	−24	0004: 8000
04th	Latvia	06th	00	00	06th	0129: 1820	−53	0000:1200

Group 2

Pl.	country	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
01.	Belarus	06th	03	02	01	0177: 1520	+25	0008: 4000
02.	Serbia	06th	03	02	01	0175: 1730	+2	0008: 4000
03.	Romania	06th	02	00	04th	0151: 1600	−9	0004: 8000
04th	Poland	06th	01	02	03	0171: 1890	−18	0004: 8000

Group 3

Pl.	country	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
01.	Spain	06th	06th	00	00	0202: 1400	+62	0012: 0000
02.	Austria	06th	03	00	03	0176: 1860	−10	0006: 6000
03.	Bosnia and Herzegovina	06th	02	00	04th	0160: 1620	−2	0004: 8000
04th	Finland	06th	01	00	05	0154: 2140	−60	0002:1000

Group 4

Pl.	country	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
01.	North Macedonia	06th	03	01	02	0174: 1580	+16	0007: 5000
02.	Czech Republic	06th	03	00	03	0161: 1610	± 0	0006: 6000
03.	Iceland	06th	03	00	03	0163: 1630	± 0	0006: 6000
04th	Ukraine	06th	02	01	03	0152: 1680	−16	0005: 7000

Group 5

Pl.	country	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
01.	Germany	06th	06th	00	00	0173: 1370	+36	0012: 0000
02.	Slovenia	06th	03	01	02	0162: 1480	+14	0007: 5000
03.	Portugal	06th	02	01	03	0148: 1650	−17	0005: 7000
04th	Switzerland	06th	00	00	06th	0138: 1710	−33	0000:1200

Group 6

Pl.	country	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
01.	Sweden	06th	05	00	01	0166: 1250	+41	0010: 2000
02.	Montenegro	06th	02	03	01	0158: 1680	−10	0007: 5000
03.	Russia	06th	01	03	02	0149: 1600	−11	0005: 7000
04th	Slovakia	06th	00	02	04th	0146: 1660	−20	0002:1000

Group 7

Pl.	country	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
01.	France	06th	05	00	01	0191: 1690	+22	0010: 2000
02.	Norway	06th	04th	00	02	0196: 1630	+33	0008: 4000
03.	Lithuania	06th	03	00	03	0163: 1790	−16	0006: 6000
04th	Belgium	06th	00	00	06th	0175: 2140	−39	0000:1200

Web links

• European Handball Federation (EHF): Information on the European Handball Championship 2018 (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Draw for EHF EURO 2018 play-offs takes place on 23 June. EHF, June 23, 2015, accessed February 1, 2016 . 
2. ↑ European champions Germany in pot 1 for qualification for EM 2018 - draw on April 14th. DHB, April 5, 2016, accessed April 5, 2016 .