2019 Men’s Handball World Championship Preview – January 10th-27th 2019
The 2019 edition of the Men’s Handball World Championships begins on January 10th and they will be running through to the 27th of the month. This is a slightly new format this time around actually because the tournament is being jointly hosted by two nations for the first time ever. The event will be held across Denmark and Germany. It is France who are the 5/2 favourites to collect the title* (betting odds taken from Ladbrokes on January 4th, 2019 at 9:28 pm)
Men’s Handball World Championship Odds*
France 5/2
Denmark 9/4
Germany 5/1
Spain 6/1
Norway 9/1
Croatia 10/1
Sweden 18/1
Qatar 33/1
Hungary 50/1
Iceland 80/1
Russia 100/1
Macedonia 150/1
Brazil 150/1
Serbia 150/1
250/1 bar
* (betting odds taken from Ladbrokes on January 4th, 2019 at 11.55 pm)
Reigning Champions
Two years ago it was France who walked away with their sixth title. That was a successful title defence which they pulled off as well. They took a 33-26 win over Norway in the final, the Norwegians getting their first ever medal at the tournament. Slovenia, who took the win in the third-place match over Croatia, also got their first ever World Championship medal.
Preliminary Round
The first round of action starts with the participating nations split into four groups. There are six nations in each group. The format is a straight round-robin affair and qualification is pretty straightforward. The top three teams from each of the groups in that preliminary round then go through to the Main Round. All of the teams who didn’t qualify go into small little brackets (based on finishing positions) to settle the position of the final standings. There is a playoff bracket for 21st-24th, one for 17th-20th and one for 13th-16th.
The Main Round
The Main round of the Men’s Handball World Championships sees the twelve teams split into two groups. Again this will be a round robin affair. The top two from those two groups the move ahead to the semi-finals. The rest of the finishers will play off against each other (7th v 8th for example) to settle the final positions.
The Knockouts
The four teams making it through to the knockout stages then find themselves in a straight knockout situation. It’s a winner takes all from that position with the Final itself being played on January 27th in Denmark.
France and Denmark
France are obviously going to be expected to be at the business end of things again. It may end up being a case of who can knock them off their perch. That is back to wins at the event which they have taken. France have won four of the last five editions of this tournament and at that price of 5/2 outright favourites* (betting odds taken from Ladbrokes on January 4th, 2019 at 11.55 pm).
But host nation Denmark are right there in the market with the outright favourites. Home advantage certainly counted for France two years ago and Denmark will be hoping it is the same way for them here. The Danes have been to the final four in two of the last four editions of the Men’s Handball World Championships.
This is the second time that Denmark have hosted the competition. The first time was back in 1978 with West Germany taking the title and the Danes finishing fourth.Will the Danes be able to get across the line and touch the gold for the first time in their history?
Norway and Germany
Runners-up two years ago, Norway have been trading well, despite that having been their only finish in the top three in the history of the tournament. So the question surrounding them will be whether or not they can live up to those same standards, or indeed manage to find a way to go even better. They set the bar higher than ever last time out at the competition and it’s not easy to live up to that. Two years ago they had three players inside the top seven of the final goalscorers list.
Germany are expected to be back around the business end of things. Their last title was back in 2007 when the event was hosted by them. They are joint hosts with Denmark this time around. Since that 2007 success, Germany haven’t been back to the final four of the World Championships. Two years ago they failed to get past the round of sixteen, losing out by a point against Qatar.
World Winners
It is worth having a look at the threats coming into the tournament who qualified as winners from various continental championships. Tunisia were the winners of the 2018 African Men’s Handball Championship, beating out Egypt in the Final. Tunisia were in the 2017 Championships, finishing 19th out of 24th, with Egypt doing much better in taking 13th.
The Asian champions heading into the World Championships are Qatar who won their third title, beating out Bahrain. Qatar finished eighth two years ago and they have become a growing force in the game having been to each of the last three editions. As for Bahrain this is just their third appearance and they finished 23rd two years ago.
Winners of the 2018 Pan American Championship was Argentina, who claimed their seventh such title. They beat Brazil in the final. Two years ago at the World Championship Brazil finished 16th with Argentina two places behind them. There has never been a non-European winner of the World Handball Championships.
Predictions
Given how much strength they have shown on this stage in the last few years, it has to be France for a title defence. They could create history at the same time too, being the first ever nation to win it three times in a row. The fascinating thing about it all will be to see who will push them the closest. Will, it more the more long-time stability of Denmark or will the Norwegians be able to take this a step further than they did two years ago?
