Nicole Andersen, has been playing for the U.S. Women’s National Team since 2015. She has Danish and American citizenship and currently plays her club handball for AS Cannes Mandelieu in the French 2nd Division. In Part 1 of our interview we discuss how she started playing handball, became a member of the U.S. National Team and her experience this season playing during the pandemic.
The quarterfinals start on Wednesday and these teams will be playing 2 matches with the aggregate score for both matches deciding who will advance. The 1st leg matches are played at the lower ranked seeds home court so those teams will be looking to try and get a win by as many goals as possible to improve their chances in the 2nd legs next week. For sure, there is no such thing as “garbage time” at the end of these first leg matches. Every goal matters.
5th place Dormagen travels to 11th place Hamm-Westfalen.
Liga ASOBAL (Spain)
Leon (-2.5) vs Granollers (Wednesday, 1930 CET): Video Link**Postponed**
Drew Donlin plays defense and circle runner for Leon.
The season is winding down for Leon and they have 4 more matches remaining in the Liga ASOBAL. Currently in 5th place this match presents an opportunity to gain 2 points on 4th place Granollers.
The regular season is over and Cannes has now started “play downs” which are essentially a mini relegation competition of 4 clubs with the last place club being relegated from D2F to N1F (2nd to 3rd level of play. Cannes is currently tied with La Rochelle so this is a pretty big match for them.
Since mid-April a relatively new start up TV network, the All Sports TV Network, has been broadcasting handball 9 times/week in the U.S. If that headline sounds too good be to true, let’s just say that it does come with a few caveats. Probably the biggest caveat (for already converted handball fans) is that the handball being broadcast is simply repeats of the IHF Olympic Qualification Tournaments that took place in March. Matches that we’ve already seen and can re-watch anytime on the IHF YouTube channel: Link
Another caveat is that the network isn’t available on traditional cable or satellite packages. Instead their strategy is to focus on digital over air channels and on Over the Top (OTT) options like Roku and Amazon Fire. Their website indicates plans to reach up to 70 million homes, but it’s not clear whether that target has been met.
When and How to Watch
The All Sports TV Network is currently showing handball on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 0300, 1100 and 1900 (US ET). I think a different Olympic qualification match is being repeatedly shown each week and this week it’s a rebroadcast of the Germany vs Sweden Men’s match.
I checked it out via my Roku. To do that first search and add the All Sports TV Network to your channel lineup. Then click on the channel and watch. It’s a pretty decent stream with an HD picture.
Any Handball Exposure is a Good Thing
While this handball viewing opportunity isn’t a big deal for the handful of dedicated handball fans in the U.S. the old adage any promotion is good promotion applies here. The U.S. is a big country and undoubtedly some folks out there unfamiliar with handball are being exposed to the sport for the first time.
Here are a few quotes from the press release highlighting those opportunities:
“We are very excited about having the opportunity to bring team handball to American viewers,” stated ALL SPORTS President Roger Neal Smith. “We truly believe that the United States could, and should, become a major force in team handball. To that end, we plan to do everything we can to help make the American public become more aware of its existence.”
“This is a fantastic opportunity for an American audience to watch top tier handball as the sport continues to gain momentum leading up to the Olympic Games this summer”, stated Ryan Johnson, Chief Executive Officer of USA Team Handball. “The more exposure we can get for this sport in the US, the better. We’re grateful for ALL SPORTS’ efforts to make this happen.”
Future Opportunities?
Again, while today this isn’t a big deal for the dedicated handball fan it does point the way for future opportunities. More and more TV viewing is shifting away from cable/satellite towards streaming/OTT options. Inevitably more handball will be finding its way to channels like the All Sports TV Network. Indeed beach handball has already been shown there and one could envision U.S. National Team matches and our Collegiate and Open Club National Championships eventually finding their way to channels like the All Sports TV Network. Maybe international viewing options too.
Would I prefer to have more prominent OTT options like ESPN+, Peacock and Paramount+ show handball instead? Of course; the more eyeballs the better. That being said sometimes networks like ESPN+ don’t provide the sort of promotion we would like. Case in point: ESPN’s promotion (or lack thereof) of during the 2021 World Championships.
Time will tell, but with handball’s low profile and very small fan base it might be necessary to first start at the lower end of the spectrum and then gradually work our way to more prominent networks. Further, as TV options become more and more fragmented and available for free/low cost a big name network might not even be a requirement to get the handball “foot” in the door.
In case you missed my conversation with Stephen Neilson of the Scottish Handball Association you can watch the replay view here in the embedded YouTube file or at the Conference website: Link
Here are links to some of the topics that came up in our conversation:
The “Iceland Strategy”: Focus a large percentage of USA Team Handball’s resources on one geographical location (Part 1; Part 2)
Podcast discussing the Forum Club Handball’s support to select U.S. Athletes: Link
2021 World Championships USA Men’s National Team roster: Link
Australian Bevan Calvert:
2020 interview with the (Un)Informed Handball Hour: Link
2011 interview with Eurosport: Link (Starts at 7:30)
This whole feature on the British National Team before the Olympics is quite the trip down memory lane.
USDK Dunkerque: The top pro club on Britain’s doorstep: Link
The projected top four 3rd place teams (If the odds predictions are 100% correct)
For regular updates on when and where handball matches can be streamed online follow Team Handball News on social media: TwitterFacebookInstagram
All times are CET which is 6 hours ahead of US ET. Odds courtesy of Bet MGM and/or OddsPortal.
Today (Sunday, 2 May) at 1800 CET, qualification for the 2022 European Handball Championships will wrap up with a mad dash of 15 simultaneous matches. Here are those 15 matches, the current handicap odds and a top level summary of what each team needs to do to qualify. For a way more detailed summary including all possibilities check out this earlier posting: Link
All matches can be seen on ehfTV. You might want to get multiple devices and laptops today. I will also try and tweet with timely updates as to the current qualification situation and which matches have become pivotal: Team Handball News on Twitter
Group 1
France (-12.5) vs Greece
This match is very unlikely to effect qualification
Group 2
Austria (-0.5) vs Bosnia & Herzegovina
Austria: If Austria win they finish in 2nd place. If they lose they head to the 3rd place table with 0 points and they start the day with a -29 GD. Mathematically, in the running, but it would probably take some ridiculous blow outs to advance with that high of a -GD. Should they draw vs Bosnia they would take 1 point to the table, but they would need to have several of the swing matches go there way.
Bosnia & Herzegovina: If Bosnia beats Austria they will finish in 2nd place. If they lose, they will take 2 points to the 3rd place table and they start the day with a GD of 0. And, that probably is enough to finish 4th or better. To be on the safe side they will be hoping for results in the other groups that send teams to the table with less than 2 points. Those results include:
Ukraine beating the Czech Republic
N. Macedonia beating Switzerland
Montenegro and Romania not ending in a draw
Germany (-11.5) vs Estonia
This match is very unlikely to effect qualification
Group 3
Czech Republic (-1) vs Ukraine
Czech Republic: The Czech Republic is in pretty good shape. If they beat Ukraine they finish 2nd in their group. If they lose to the Ukraine they will finish 3rd, but will have 2 points and will start the day with a +1 GD.
Ukraine: Ukraine’s situation is a little more precarious. If they beat the Czech Republic they qualify, but if they lose they enter the table with just 1 point, meaning they will be looking for results in the other groups that result in teams heading to the 3rd place table with 0 points. Poland will likely need 2 of the 3 results below to happen:
Bosnia & Herzegovina beating Austria
N. Macedonia beating Switzerland
Montenegro and Romania not ending in a draw
Russia (-7.5) vs Faroe Islands
This match has no effect on qualification
Group 4
Portugal (-5.5) vs LithuaniaLithuania might get in with their 2 points from upsetting Iceland. Key word: might. An upset draw or win, however, should put them through
Lithuania: If Lithuania loses to Portugal as expected they will have 2 points, but also a pretty high -GD: -22 plus whatever they lose to Portugal by. This means they will be hoping for results from the other groups that send teams to the 3rd place table with less than 2 points. Lithuania will likely need 2 of the 4 results below to happen:
Ukraine beating the Czech Republic
Bosnia & Herzegovina beating Austria
N. Macedonia beating Switzerland
Montenegro and Romania not ending in a draw
Iceland (-10) vs Israel
This match is unlikely to effect qualification
Group 5
Netherlands vs Poland (-0.5)
Netherlands: They have qualified. There is no possible way for there to be 4 nations with 3 points in the 3rd place table.
Poland: Poland is in pretty good shape as they will head to the table with at least 2 points and will start the day with a -3 GD.
Slovenia (-9.5) vs Turkey
This match has no effect on qualification
Group 6
Belarus (-8.5) vs Latvia
This match is unlikely to effect qualification
Norway (-12.5) vs Italy
This match is unlikely to effect qualification
Group 7
N. Macedonia vs Switzerland (-2)
Switzerland: If Switzerland beat Macedonia they head to the 3rd place table with 2 points and start the day with a -8 GD. 2 points might be enough to qualify and their GD will improve depending on the margin of victory so they might catch up to other teams with 2 points. And, they will also be looking for results in the other groups that send teams to the 3rd place table with less than 2 points. Those results include:
Ukraine beating the Czech Republic
Bosnia & Herzegovina beating Austria
Montenegro and Romania not ending in a draw
Denmark (-13) vs Finland
This match has no effect on qualification
Group 8
Montenegro (-1.5) vs Romania
Montenegro and Romania: Well, this is the wild card situation…
If Montenegro wins they take 2nd in the group. If they lose they head to the table with 0 points and a -24 GD (little chance of finishing in the top 4)
If Romania wins they take 2nd in the group. If they lose they finish in 4th place and Kosovo takes 3rd, but with 0 points and a -26 GD (little chance of finishing in the top 4)
If however, Romania and Montenegro draw Montenegro finishes 2nd and Romania takes 3rd… And, they head to the table with 3 points which will qualify them as well.Will these teams play for a draw? No, that’s tough to manipulate from the first minute of a 60 minute match. And, if either team gets a lead that’s a comfortable way to qualify. That being said, if the match is tied in the waning minutes of the game will there be any incentive to take a risky shot that could turn into an easy fast break for the other team? No… None, whatsoever.
Sweden (-11.5) vs Kosovo
This match is unlikely to effect qualification
The Possible Outcomes (Just the Likely Ones)
Here are the most likely 3rd place teams and the results that would head to the best 3rd place table. (For every single possible outcome: Link)
Possible 3rd Place Results (The Likely Ones)
Projected Results (Based Strictly on the Odds)
Taking the odds above as to which teams would win and by how many goals (the handicap was rounded up) these are the teams that would qualify
Teams that qualify by finishing 2nd in their group: Poland, Czech Republic, Austria, Montenegro
Teams that will finish in 3rd place and the resulting top 4 teams: Netherlands, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Lithuania
The projected top four 3rd place teams (If the odds predictions are 100% correct)
Teams currently in contention that would finish in 4th place: Romania
Of course, this is just one possible outcome of many. And, with 5 matches projected to be close it’s pretty unlikely that this is what will occur. Switzerland could lose to Macedonia, Bosnia could be Austria, etc, etc.
Halftime Projection (To be filled at halftime)
As fast as I can possibly do it, I will update the table at halftime. And, I will try to post updates on Twitter as the matches head to the finish. Key word… Try. It can be very hard to post and watch 5 matches at the same time. And, it goes without saying I’m not infallible. Hopefully, there won’t be any mistakes.
NOTE: This is a work in progress. Check back for updates.
Euro 2022 Qualification Format
The qualification picture for the Men’s 2022 European Championships is starting to become clearer, but there is still quite a bit yet to be resolved this Sunday when 15 qualification matches will be simultaneously played at 1800 CET. Yes, you read that right: 15 matches will be played simultaneously. Although, I haven’t seen it stated anywhere, I’m guessing this is being done to make it tougher (if not impossible) for any manipulation of the results to favor one over another possible. And, to avoid the possibility of a situation where a draw might be advantageous for both nations and this is clearly known before the start of a match.
All, well in good, but this results in quite a bit of a headache for teams trying to figure out what they need to do in order to qualify. And, this is especially true when trying to determine which teams will qualify as the 4 best 3rd place teams. The 3rd place teams from all 8 groups will be ranked based on the points and goal differential they’ve obtained in Group Play vs the 1st and 2nd place teams in their group. (Results against the 4th place team are thrown out.) As you might expect this means picking off 2 points for a win or 1 point for a draw against the top two teams in your group are likely to be critical for qualification.
Current 3rd Place Standings (A Little Bit Misleading)
Euro 2022 Qualification (3rd Place Standings after matches played on April 30)
These standings, however, can be a bit misleading because the teams that are currently in 3rd place might not end up in 3rd place. No group demonstrates this more clearly than Group 8. Right now Romania is in 3rd place and thanks to a 36-27 win over 2nd place Montenegro they have 2 points and a GD of -2. Unfortunately, for Romania, however, is the reality that they also have a loss and a draw vs 4th place Kosovo and should they end up tied with Kosovo they will slip into 4th place on head to head tiebreakers. And, then Kosovo would make this table, but they would have 0 points and a GD of -26 or even worse depending on their last match with Sweden.
Euro 2022 Group Scenarios
Below for each group are the current standings, potential final standings (if necessary) and the potential 3rd place points and goal differential that will go to the overal 3rd place standings. Also, highlighted in light blue is what I think the more likely outcomes are.
Group 1
Standings after matches played on April 29
Group 1 is pretty straightforward. Serbia and France have already qualified and Greece is guaranteed to finish in 3rd place. In order to qualify, Greece will likely need an upset win over France on Sunday. And, even that win might not be enough with the -21 GD they will start with. In blue, is what I project to be the most likely scenario.
Group 1 (3rd Place Scenarios)
Group 2
Standings after matches played on April 29
Group 2 is a bit complicated. Germany is guaranteed to finish in first place while Austria will host Bosnia & Herzegovina in a match that will likely determine 2nd and 3rd place. Likely, but not guaranteed as there is one scenario where Estonia can sneak into 3rd place.
Group 2 Scenarios
Barring Estonia pulling an epic upset over Germany, the Austria – Bosnia match will determine who gets 2nd place. As can be seen in the table below Austria probably needs a win as their 3rd place table will be 0 points and a GD worse than -29. Whereas Bosnia would probably be in pretty good shape with 2 points from their victory against Austria earlier in qualification.
Group 2 (3rd Place Scenarios)
Group 3
Standings after matches played on April 30
Russia has won the group and qualified and the Faroe Islands has been eliminated. The Czech Republic – Ukraine match will decide 2nd and 3rd place. Ukraine needs to win the match to finish 2nd while the Czech Republic will finish 2nd with either a win or a draw. The Czech Republic is also in a good position to qualify as a 3rd place team since they will take 3 points with them into the 3rd place table. The Ukraine might also qualify, but 1 point (for their draw with Russia) might not be enough.
Group 2 (3rd Place Scenarios)
Group 4
Standings after matches played on April 29
Group 4 is relatively straight forward. Portugal and Island will finish in the top 2 places while Lithuania will finish in 3rd place in 8 of the 9 scenarios. If Israel were to upset Iceland and Portugal were to beat Lithuania Israel would finish ahead of Lithuania due to a better goal differential in their two meetings.
Group 4 Scenarios
Lithuania thanks to the 2 points earned for their upset win over Iceland have good chances to secure one of the best 3rd places. Israel’s chances are a real long shot as it would require an upset victory over Iceland in Iceland. The most like scenario will be for both Portugal and Iceland to earn victories on Sunday.
Group 4 (3rd Place Scenarios)
Group 5
Standings after matches played on April 29
Group 5 appears to have 3 qualifiers. Slovenia due to tiebreaker advantages is guaranteed to finish either 1st or 2nd. The result of the Poland – Netherlands match will determine which of those teams will finish in 3rd place. If Poland beats the Netherlands, the Netherlands will finish in 3rd place. If the Netherlands wins or if the match is a draw Poland will finish in 3rd place. Winless Turkey is guaranteed to finish 4th.
Group 5 Scenarios
Should the Netherlands finish in 3rd place they will take 3 points with them into the third place table, so it’s hard to see them not finishing in the top four. Poland should they finish in 3rd place will take 2 point with them so they should also have good chances. In blue are the two most like outcomes on Sunday.
Group 5 (3rd Place Scenarios)
Group 6
Standings after matches played on April 29
Norway and Belarus have qualified and either Italy or Latvia will finish in 3rd place. Italy has the tiebreaker advantage over Latvia,
Group 6 Scenarios
Both Italy and Latvia need a big upset win in order to have a chance in the 3rd place table. And, even that might not be enough as they have a big GD deficit. Both teams are big underdogs in their last match and the most likely outcome is that they will both lose.
Group 6 (3rd Place Scenarios)
Group 7
Standings after matches played on April 29
Group 7 is all about Switzerland as they are guaranteed to finish in 3rd place. The only question is whether they can beat N. Macedonia in N. Macedonia to head to the 3rd place table with 2 points.
Group 7 (3rd Place Scenarios)
Group 8
Standings after matches played on April 30
Sweden is guaranteed to finish 1st, but Montenegro, Romania and Kosovo are duking it out for 2nd and 3rd. Montenegro has a tiebreaker advantage over Kosovo while Kosovo has a tiebreaker advantage over Romania
Group 8 Scenarios
Here’s where it really gets interesting… If undefeated Sweden beats Kosovo as expected the Montenegro – Romania will decide who gets 2nd and it’s essentially a winner take all situation.
If Montenegro wins, Romania is eliminated as Kosovo is the 3rd place team due to to their victory and draw vs Romania
If Romania wins, Montenegro is the 3rd place team, but they take 0 points and a (-24 + the amount of their loss) as a GD. Barring a bizarre turn of events Montenegro is eliminated.
Winner take all, except there are also draws in handball. And should that happen, both teams will qualify. Montenegro as the 2nd place team and Romania as a 3rd place team taking 3 points into the table which is surely enough to qualify as a best place 3rd team.
Group 8 (3rd Place Scenarios)
Putting it All Together
Here are the “likely results” from each of the 8 groups roughly in order from strongest to weakest
Definitely will result in 2 or 3 pointsDefinitely will result in at least 1 pointSwing groups that could result in 0 points or 2 pointsThe wild card group where a drawn match could really shake things upTwo groups that are unlikely to matter
Here’s a rough summary of what each nation needs to happen in order to qualify
Netherlands: They have qualified. There is no possible way for there to be 4 nations with 3 points in the 3rd place table.
Poland: Poland is in pretty good shape as they will head to the table with at least 2 points and will start the day with a -3 GD.
Lithuania: If Lithuania loses to Portugal as expected they will have 2 points, but also a pretty high -GD: -22 plus whatever they lose to Portugal by. This means they will be hoping for results from the other groups that send teams to the 3rd place table with less than 2 points. Lithuania will likely need 2 of the 4 results below to happen:
Ukraine beating the Czech Republic
Bosnia & Herzegovina beating Austria
N. Macedonia beating Switzerland
Montenegro and Romania not ending in a draw
Czech Republic: The Czech Republic is in pretty good shape. If they beat Ukraine they finish 2nd in their group. If they lose to the Ukraine they will finish 3rd, but will have 2 points and will start the day with a +1 GD.
Ukraine: Ukraine’s situation is a little more precarious. If they beat the Czech Republic they qualify, but if they lose they enter the table with just 1 point, meaning they will be looking for results in the other groups that result in teams heading to the 3rd place table with 0 points. Poland will likely need 2 of the 3 results below to happen:
Bosnia & Herzegovina beating Austria
N. Macedonia beating Switzerland
Montenegro and Romania not ending in a draw
Bosnia & Herzegovina: If Bosnia beats Austria they will finish in 2nd place. If they lose, they will take 2 points to the 3rd place table and they start the day with a GD of 0. And, that probably is enough to finish 4th or better. To be on the safe side they will be hoping for results in the other groups that send teams to the table with less than 2 points. Those results include:
Ukraine beating the Czech Republic
N. Macedonia beating Switzerland
Montenegro and Romania not ending in a draw
Austria: If Austria win they finish in 2nd place. If they lose they head to the 3rd place table with 0 points and they start the day with a -29 GD. Mathematically, in the running, but it would probably take some ridiculous blow outs to advance with that high of a -GD. Should they draw vs Bosnia they would take 1 point to the table, but they would need to have several of the swing matches go there way.
Switzerland: If Switzerland beat Macedonia they head to the 3rd place table with 2 points and start the day with a -8 GD. 2 points might be enough to qualify and their GD will improve depending on the margin of victory so they might catch up to other teams with 2 points. And, they will also be looking for results in the other groups that send teams to the 3rd place table with less than 2 points. Those results include:
Ukraine beating the Czech Republic
Bosnia & Herzegovina beating Austria
Montenegro and Romania not ending in a draw
Montenegro and Romania: Well, this is the wild card situation…
If Montenegro wins they take 2nd in the group. If they lose they head to the table with 0 points and a -24 GD (little chance of finishing in the top 4)
If Romania wins they take 2nd in the group. If they lose they finish in 4th place and Kosovo takes 3rd, but with 0 points and a -26 GD (little chance of finishing in the top 4)
If however, Romania and Montenegro draw Montenegro finishes 2nd and Romania takes 3rd… And, they head to the table with 3 points which will qualify them as well.
Will these teams play for a draw? No, that’s tough to manipulate from the first minute of a 60 minute match. And, if either team gets a lead that’s a comfortable way to qualify. That being said, if the match is tied in the waning minutes of the game will there be any incentive to take a risky shot that could turn into an easy fast break for the other team? No… None, whatsoever.
Italy, Greece, Latvia and Israel: These sides could pull off big upsets and get 2 points, but it’s hard to see that happening. Should it occur, though, their situation would be essentially the same as Lithuania’s above.
The Scottish Handball Association is hosting an International Conference on Wednesday and Thursday (28-29 April). The theme of the conference is “Beyond Winning and Losing: Collaborating for More Important Results” and all of the briefings and interviews can be viewed online.
There are several interesting items on the schedule (check it out), but here are a few that I’m looking forward to seeing
Wednesday, 28 April
1800 CET: How to build participation in Handball within Scottish Schools
1900 CET: Big Sport, Wee Countries, Big Ambition: What Scottish Handball and other ‘minority’ sports can learn from success of Faroes and Portugal in growing their game
Thursday, 29 April
1600 CET: Challenges of Growing Handball: A North American perspective (with yours truly, John Ryan)
1930 CET: British Handball – past, present and future (with handball TV Commentator and British Handball’s Paul Bray)
Challenges of Growing Handball: A North American Perspective
A few notes on this, as it was a fun, informal discussion with yours truly and Scottish Handball’s Stephen Neilson. We covered several topics including the following:
How the U.S. and other English speaking countries have tried to varying degrees of success to capitalize on Olympic Opportunities
Whether the need to field competitive national teams can be a “distraction” that negatively impacts grass roots development
Which English speaking nation might be best on track for a “breakthrough” in the handball world
How the current U.S. reliance on dual citizens might impact stateside development… (My perspective might surprise you)
The conference is free and available to all who register.
For regular updates on when and where handball matches can be streamed online follow Team Handball News on social media: TwitterFacebookInstagram
All times are CET which is 6 hours ahead of US ET. Odds courtesy of Bet MGM and/or OddsPortal.
Euro 2022 Qualification
Qualification for the Men’s 2022 European Championships will be the focus this week so all the major club leagues are taking the week off. All told, over the course of the next 7 days (26 April to 2 May) there will be 37 qualification matches on ehfTV. 37 matches!
There are 8 qualification groups with 4 teams each and the top 2 nations will qualify from each of these groups. Further, with the European Championships expansion to 24 nations, the 4 best 3rd place nations will also qualify. These 4 teams will be determined by ranking the 3rd place teams from all 8 groups based on the points and goal differential they’ve obtained in Group Play vs the 1st and 2nd place teams in their group. (Results against the 4th place team are thrown out.) As you might expect this means picking off 2 points for a win or 1 point for a draw against the top two teams in your group are likely to be critical for qualification.
2020 Qualification as a Reference Point
The 2020 Championships also had the same qualification format and for reference here’s the 3rd place table that decided the final 4 qualifying teams:
For Reference: The Last 4 Nations that Qualified for the 2020 Euro
For 2020 qualification just 1 win vs the top two teams in your group was necessary to be in contention and then Israel was pipped by Ukraine on goal differential. That doesn’t mean this will also be the case in 2022, but it’s a good reference point.
2022 Euro Qualification (Best 3rd Place Standings- Prior to Matches on 27 April)
As it stands, however, this table is somewhat meaningless because there are several matches to be played and it’s not very clear which teams are even actually likely to finish in 3rd place. Currently, no team in these standings even has a victory against the top 2 teams in their group. This means that just 1 upset victory against a top team might be enough for qualification so almost every team still has a chance to qualify. It also means that it’s way too early to break down all the possible scenarios, but I will be updating this post throughout the week. And, then on Friday, I’ll go through all the scenarios… which could be a challenging mess heading into the final match day on Sunday
Euro 2022 Qualification Matches (All matches can be seen on ehfTV)
Monday
2000 CET: Israel (-3) vs Lithuania
Israel won 34-28
Tuesday
1800 CET: Turkey vs Slovenia (-7.5)
Slovenia won 30-22.
1900 CET: Greece vs France (-12.5)
France won 40-31.
1930 CET: Israel vs Iceland (-7.5)
Iceland won 30-20.
Wednesday
1700 CET: Ukraine (-0.5) vs Czech Republic
The Czech Republic won 28-26.
1700 CET: Romania vs Sweden (-6.5)
Sweden won 31-23.
1700 CET: Finland vs N. Macedonia (-5.5)
N. Macedonia won 27-23
1830 CET: Russia (-10.5) vs Faroe Islands
Russia won 31-24.
1830 CET: Switzerland vs Denmark (-5.5)
Denmark won 30-29..
1840 CET: Latvia vs Norway (-12.5)
Norway won 28-23.
1930 CET: Kosovo vs Montenegro (-3.5)
Montenegro won 27-22.
Thursday
1400 CET: Greece vs Serbia (-6.5)
Greece is all but guaranteed to finish in 3rd place and they likely need an upset vs Serbia or France on Sunday to advance. Serbia beat Greece 31-21 in January.
1610 CET: Bosnia & Herzegovina vs Germany (-5)
Germany has already qualified and Bosnia is in a 3 way fight for 2nd/3rd with Austria and Estonia in Group 2. Germany beat Bosnia 25-21 in November.
1800 CET: Turkey vs Netherlands (-3.5)
Turkey has been eliminated and will play for pride. With a win the Netherlands will be a step closer to qualification. The Netherlands beat Turkey 27-26 in November.
1800 CET: Lithuania vs Iceland (-7.5)
Iceland has all but qualified and Lithuania needs an upset for a chance at 3rd place qualification. Iceland destroyed Lithuania 36-20 in November.
1815 CET: Norway (-11) vs Latvia
Norway has all but qualified and Latvia needs an upset for a chance at 3rd place qualification. Yesterday, they put up a gallant effort before falling to Norway, 28-23.
1830 CET: Estonia vs Austria (-2.5)
Estonia and Austria are level on 3 points in Group 2. This match might well be an elimination match. Austria beat Estonia 31-28 in November.
1900 CET: Italy vs Belarus (-5.5)
Belarus has all but qualified and Italy needs an upset for a chance at 3rd place qualification. Belarus beat Italy 32-27 in March.
1900 CET: Israel vs Portugal (-6.5)
Portugal has all but qualified and Israel needs an upset for a chance at 3rd place qualification. Portugal beat Israel 31-22 in November.
2000 CET: Poland vs Slovenia (Picke’em)
So far in Group 5 Poland just has 2 victories over already eliminated Turkey. They really need a win here to stay in contention for 2nd place and for 2 points should they finish in 3rd. With a win Slovenia will qualify an should they lose they will play Turkey on Sunday. Slovenia beat Poland 32-29 in March.
Friday
1800 CET: Montenegro vs Sweden (-3.5)
Sweden has already qualified while Montenegro is still fighting for qualification. An upset win by Montenegro over Sweden would qualify them and make Sunday’s big match vs Romania a friendly for them.
2045 CET: Faroe Islands vs Czech Republic (-4.5)
The Faroe Islands have been eliminated, but surely would like to get a win on home soil. The Czech Republic has a big match vs Ukraine on Sunday, but this match will have no impact to their qualification chances.
The internet has been buzzing the past few days with what is surely the strangest pop culture handball reference since Kenan Thompson on Saturday Night Live back in 2012. And, that would be rapper Lizzo‘s Instagram DM to actor Chris Evans which mysteriously included a handball girl emoji. This DM is briefly shown in the star’s TikTok video with the following caption:
“Don’t drink and DM, kids…. for legal porpoises this is a joke”
None of this explains, however, why out of the thousands of emojis available she picked the handball girl emoji. Is there some hidden meaning? Does she even know that handball exists as a sport? Does Chris Evans know about handball? My gut feeling is that it was just a random selection.
But, there is another possibility. Maybe she is a huge handball fan and perhaps it was sent to the wrong Captain America? After all, there is another Captain America, Drew Donlin, who actually plays handball. Further, Donlin who plays handball for Team USA and Spanish Club Team, Leon is from Minnesota. Could fellow Minnesotan Lizzo be done with here “New man on the Minnesota Vikings” and seeking a star in another sport?
