Croatia did not manage to get through to knockout phase as first-positioned team in group C after a clear 28:21 loss against German 'Bad boys'. Lot of things were not functioning well in Croatian game with German coach Sigurdsson taking advantage of their offensive weaknesses by bringing Henrik Pekeler in the roster for this one strengthening up their 6-0 defence which Croatian back players simply did not have an answer for and on top of all that their goalie Andreas Wolff finished the match with 16 saves. Strlek scored 5 for Croatia, Tin Kontrec played one of his best attacking matches in Croatian jersey scoring 4, Horvat added 3, Mandalinic and Cindric 1 each. Stevanovic finished the match with 3 saves, Ivic added as much. Croatia will now pack their bags and depart for Montpellier where they will in eighth-finals meet Egypt.

After a surprisingly bad opening performance and a loss against Chile not many believed that Belarus will find their place in eighth-finals. However, in sports, if you don't surrender you have a chance to reach your goals all the way until the final whistle is blown and that is exactly what Belarusians did beating Hungary 27:25 in a match which was crucial for them and which has in the end brought them third position in group C. They were 2 goals up after first 30 with goalkeeper Saldatsenka exploding in the best possible moment for Chevtsov' team grabbing 17 saves to book them a place in eighth-finals. Brouka played a key role offensively scoring 6/6, all from 7-meter line. Yurynok added 4, Rutenka 3, Shylovich 2. Csazsar and Juhasz were on the other side leading Hungary in attack with 7 both, Ligetvari, Ancsin, Lekai and Jamali added 1 each. Mikler had 7 saves. Macedonian duo Nacevski - Nikolov was in charge of the duel. Belarus will in eighth-finals play Sweden in Lille and Hungary will in Albertville face-off against Denmark.

Montenegrin referees Pavicevic and Raznatovic were on the other side in charge of the match in which Alabbas was with 9 goals from 10 attempts leading Saudi Arabia towards first win on WCh in France against Chile (26:25). Saudi Arabian goalies combined for 15 but even that was not enough for them to enlarge the gap earlier and seal the deal with Erwin Feuchtmann leveling the whole thing up at 25 with less than a minute to go. However, Alsalem came out clutch scoring a goal which brought Saudi Arabia first points in group C. Anyhow, due to Belarus win over Hungary they will both proceed with the competition in Brest.

Another derby of the bottom opened the matchday in group D with Argentina taking a clear and dominant win over Bahrain (26:17). Federico Fernandez was once again dictating the tempo of their attack scoring 8 goals. Both of these teams will however, despite of this result, proceed with the competition in Brest on President's Cup.

In the match of the day in group D Swedes have managed to beat Egypt (33:26) and take the second place after the group stage. It is already known that they are here in France flying on wings of their wing players, with Ekberg once again leading them with 8, as well as on amazing performances from their goalies with Palicka grabbing 14 saves in this one. Slovenians Lah and Sok were assigned for this duel.

Danes have managed to join France, Spain and Germany as fourth team to end the group stage with 5/5 score. In the final round they have managed to outplay Qatar taking 32:29 win on wings of Noddesbo' 8 goals and Green' 15 saves.

 

We now know all eighth-finals matchups! Check them all out on the bottom of our FULL WCH FRANCE 2017 OVERVIEW and find out when and where will your favorite team play, who will they play against as well as who are possible QF/SF opponents for your favorite squad.

You can also find President's Cup matchups along with full schedule for the final tournament in Brest.

 

Matchday 10 (20.1.2017)

Group C: Chile - Saudi Arabia 25:26 (13:13) (R. Salinas 7/Alabbas 9), Germany - Croatia 28:21 (13:9) (Wiencek 6/Strlek 5), Belarus - Hungary 27:25 (15:13) (Brouka 6/Juhasz 7)

Group D: Bahrain - Argentina 17:26 (8:13) (Abdulqader Ali 5/Fernandez 8), Sweden - Egypt 33:26 (15:9) (Ekberg 8/Eissa 7), Qatar - Denmark 29:32 (16:14) (Capote 5/Noddesbo 8)

 

Matches will, on Saturday, be played in 5 French cities. SEHA fans will, without doubt, have the most interest for eighth-finals matches played in Albertville where Macedonia will face-off against Norway and Paris where Slovenians will do their best to beat Russia. Eight-finals matches will also be played in both Montpellier (Brazil - Spain) and Lille where hosts will play Iceland in front of up to 25,000 people on Stade Pierre-Mauroy, home of LOSC Lille. On the other hand Brest will host first two encounters of President’s Cup.

 

Tomorrow on World Championship in France:

 

Montpellier: (EF) Brazil - Spain (20.45 CET)

Albertville: (EF) Norway - Macedonia (16.00 CET)

Lille: (EF) France - Iceland (18.00 CET)

Paris: (EF) Russia - Slovenia (20.45 CET)

Brest: (President's Cup) Japan - Angola (14.00 CET), Poland - Tunisia (16.00 CET)

 

FULL WCH FRANCE 2017 OVERVIEW

 

Results Group A

Round 1; France - Brazil 31:16 (17:7) (Porte 6/Toledo 5), Russia - Japan 39:29 (18:15) (Atman, Dibirov, Shishkarev 6/Shida 7), Poland - Norway 20:22 (10:12) (Daszek 7/Hansen 6)

Round 2; Japan - France 19:31 (9:17) (Uegaki 5/Fabregas 7), Brazil - Poland 28:24 (16:11) (Toledo 8/Paczkowski 6), Norway - Russia 28:24 (15:11) (Bjornsen 7/Soroka 8)

Round 3; France - Norway 31:28 (16:12) (N. Karabatic 5/ Sagosen 8), Brazil - Japan 27:24 (14:12) (Langaro 8/Tokuda 7), Poland - Russia 20:24 (9:13) (Gebala 4/Kovalev 7)

Round 4; Norway - Brazil 39:26 (18:13) (Sagosen 7/Chiuffa, Pozzer 6), Poland - Japan 26:25 (9:11) (Daszek 5/Ushida 9), Russia - France 24:35 (11:16) (Shishkarev 6/Dipanda 8)

Round 5; Russia - Brazil 28:24 (14:15) (Dereven 5/Pozzer 5), France - Poland 26:25 (13:13) (Nyokas 7/Krajewski 5), Japan - Norway 23:38 (14:19) (Motoki 4/Myrhol 7)

STANDINGS GROUP A; France 10 (+42), Norway 8 (+31), Russia 6 (+3), Brazil 4 (-25), Poland 2 (-10), Japan 0 (-41)

 

Results Group B

Round 1; Slovenia - Angola 42:25 (22:13) (Marguc, Mackovsek 9/Lopes 7), Macedonia - Tunisia 34:30 (13:14) (K. Lazarov 12/Boughanmi 9), Spain - Iceland 27:21 (10:12) (Canellas 4/Sigurdsson 5)

Round 2; Iceland - Slovenia 25:26 (8:11) (Elisson 7/Bezjak 6), Tunisia - Spain 21:26 (10:12) (Toumi 5/Tomas, Balaguer 5), Angola - Macedonia 22:31 (9:14) (Lopes 5/K.Lazarov 10)

Round 3; Iceland - Tunisia 22:22 (11:13) (Sigurdsson 5/Bannour 12), Slovenia - Macedonia 29:22 (16:10) (Marguc, Bezjak 4/K.Lazarov 9), Spain - Angola 42:22 (21:10) (Fernandez 9/Lopes 6)

Round 4; Slovenia - Tunisia 28:28 (15:13) (Kavticnik 7/Sanai 8), Angola - Iceland 19:33 (8:16) (Lopes 8/Sigurdsson 8), Macedonia - Spain 25:29 (14:14) (K. Lazarov 6/Rivera 11)

Round 5; Tunisia - Angola 43:34 (23:16) (Bannour 10/Teca 10), Macedonia - Iceland 27:27 (13:15) (Lazarov 7/Karason 7), Spain - Slovenia 36:26 (18:10) (Balaguer 7/Marguc 6)

STANDINGS GROUP B; Spain 10 (+45), Slovenia 7 (+15), Macedonia 5 (+2), Iceland 4 (+7), Tunisia 4 (0), Angola 0 (-69)

 

Results Group C

Round 1; Belarus - Chile 28:32 (14:14) (Karalek 10/R. Salinas 8), Germany - Hungary 27:23 (16:11) (Gensheimer 13/Jamali, Lekai 3), Croatia - Saudi Arabia 28:23 (12:11) (Cindric 6/Alsalem 5)

Round 2; Hungary - Croatia 28:31 (11:11) (Balogh, Harsanyi 6/Duvnjak 5), Chile - Germany 14:35 (6:17) (Feuchtmann 2/Kohlbacher 8), Saudi Arabia - Belarus 26:29 (13:14) (Alsalem 7/Pukhouski 9)

Round 3; Hungary - Chile 34:29 (17:14) (Jamali 7/Er. Feuchtmann 9), Croatia - Belarus 31:25 (18:15) (Cindric 8/Karalek 7), Germany - Saudi Arabia 38:24 (21:13) (Fath 6/Alzaer 8)

Round 4; Saudi Arabia - Hungary 24:37 (10:17) (Almohsin 7/Csazsar 9), Belarus - Germany 25:31 (16:16) (Shylovich 4/Gensheimer 8), Croatia - Chile 37:22 (17:9) (Mihic 8/Salinas 4)

Round 5; Chile - Saudi Arabia 25:26 (13:13) (R. Salinas 7/Alabbas 9), Germany - Croatia 28:21 (13:9) (Wiencek 6/Strlek 5), Belarus - Hungary 27:25 (15:13) (Brouka 6/Juhasz 7)

STANDINGS GROUP C; Germany 10 (+52), Croatia 8 (+22), Belarus 4 (-11), Hungary 4 (+9), Saudi Arabia 2 (-34), Chile 2 (-38)

 

Results Group D

Round 1; Qatar - Egypt 20:22 (8:11) (Capote 5/El-Ahmar 8), Sweden - Bahrain 33:16 (17:5) (Tollbring 10/Habib Hasan 4), Denmark - Argentina 33:22 (17:11) (Hansen 6/F. Fernandez 6)

Round 2; Egypt - Denmark 28:35 (15:21) (Elderaa 6/Svan 6), Argentina - Sweden 17:35 (11:16) (S. Simonet 5/Zachrisson 8), Bahrain - Qatar 22:32 (9:19) (Abdulqader Ali 5/Madadi 8)

Round 3; Egypt - Bahrain 31:29 (17:15) (Elderaa 6/Abdulla Saad 6), Denmark - Sweden 27:25 (14:10) (Hansen 8/Ekberg 7), Qatar - Argentina 21:17 (9:2) (Mallash 5/Fernandez 7)

Round 4; Argentina - Egypt 26:31 (10:13) (Vieyra 12/Elbassiouny 5), Denmark - Bahrain 30:26 (17:13) (H. Toft 6/Habib Hasan 6), Sweden - Qatar 36:25 (19:12) (Ekberg 9/Roine 8)

Round 5; Bahrain - Argentina 17:26 (8:13) (Abdulqader Ali 5/Fernandez 8), Sweden - Egypt 33:26 (15:9) (Ekberg 8/Eissa 7), Qatar - Denmark 29:32 (16:14) (Capote 5/Noddesbo 8)

STANDINGS GROUP D; Denmark 10 (+27), Sweden 8 (+51), Egypt 6 (-5), Qatar 4 (-2), Argentina 2 (-29), Bahrain 0 (-42)

 

Eighth-finals: 

Montpellier: Brazil vs Spain (21.1.), Croatia vs Egypt (22.1.)

Winners will meet in quarter-finals playing in Montpellier.

 

Albertville: Norway vs Macedonia (21.1.), Hungary vs Denmark (22.1.)

Winners will meet in quarter-finals playing in Albertville.

 

Lille: France vs Iceland (21.1.), Belarus vs Sweden (22.1.)

Winners will meet in quarter-finals playing in Lille.

 

Paris: Russia vs Slovenia (21.1.), Germany vs Qatar (22.1.)

Winners will meet in quarter-finals playing in Paris.

 

Winners from QF in Lille and QF in Paris will meet in semi-final on Thursday (26.1.) in Accorhotels Arena in Paris.

Winners from QF in Montpellier and QF in Albertville will meet in semi-final on Friday (27.1.) in Accorhotels Arena in Paris.

Bronze-medal match is scheduled from Saturday (28.1.) and final will be played on Sunday (29.1.) both in Accorhotels Arena in Paris.

President’s Cup will be played in Brest with the following schedule:

Saturday (21.1.) (1) Japan vs Angola, (2) Poland vs Tunisia

Sunday (22.1.) (3) Chile vs Bahrain, (4) Saudi Arabia vs Argentina

Monday (23.1.) PLACES 23/24 L(1) vs L(3), PLACES 21/22 W(1) vs W(3), PLACES 19/20 L(2) vs L(4), PLACES 17/18 W(2) vs W(4)