Croatia fell to France in the first match of Group C on Thursday, topped Serbia on Sunday, and crushed Ukraine on Monday to advance to the second round of the EHF Euro 2022. Though their fate in the second round wasn’t entirely left up to them.
Because France defeated Serbia (29:25) on Monday to advance to the second round with a maximum of three victories, Croatia too advanced to the next phase of the competition.
Croatia advanced to the second round of the European Handball Championship as the second-placed team in Group C.
The Cowboys finished in Szeged behind France, which beat Serbia, and now travel to Budapest to play four more games as part of the newly formed Group I.
The competition format is such that Group I will feature the two best teams from groups A, B, and C (with the transfer of points won in the mutual match with the national team that also moves forward).
First-placed Denmark and second-placed Montenegro passed from group A, which knocked out Slovenia in the direct calculation for the second place. Denmark and France, who is the winner of Group C, transferred two points to the second round.
As for Group B, the last round will be played on Tuesday. So far, Iceland is the best, recording both victories. On the other hand, host Hungary managed to recover from the shock defeat at the opening of the Euro against the Netherlands and beat Portugal in the last seconds of the second match (Hungary and Iceland and the Netherlands and Portugal will meet in the last round).
Although the list of participants in the second round has not yet been completed, Croatia has already learned their first opponents. Thus, Hrvoje Horvat’s team will first play on Thursday, January 20, against the second-placed team in Group A (Montenegro).
C2 (Croatia) will play against A1 on Saturday, January 22, the current world champion Denmark.
There will be a clash against the winner of Group B on Monday, January 24, and two days later (Wednesday, January 26) a match against the runner-up in Group B.
From this second-round group, the two best teams will advance to the semifinals of the European Championship, while the third-placed team will play for fifth place. All this will take place from January 28 to 30 in Budapest.
Source: Gol.hr
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