Vektor

Sweden is looking really good for the SF now thanks to Russia showing no mercy to Spain, if they beat Montenegro, they will be in the Top4.

I am sure everyone in the Hungarian handball community will root for Netherlands and Sweden tomorrow like they are the Hungarian national team.

So Romania officially takes one of the ECh OQT spots. Teams that already qualified: Teams that can either qualify directly or get a WCh OQT spot: Teams that can get a WCh OQT spot: Team that got an ECh OQT spot: Team that can get an ECh OQT spot:

Russia is annihilating literally every team so far.

With the exception of that weird defeat against Netherlands, Norway is doing a flawless job so far, we are probably heading towards a Norway v Russia final.

Yeah, that's what I am thinking as well. IOC will lose some Russian viewership just because of the whole "neutral athletes" thing, I am pretty sure they don't want to lose a lot more by not allowing the Russian volleyball or handball teams to participate for example.

I read that Russia can participate at EURO 2020 because it's not a multisport event and it's regional (European), not a World Championship. So I guess this ban only applies to World Championships and multisport events.

What does this mean for handball? Like, what if Russia wins the women's World Championship in a couple of days, will the silver medalist get the quota?

Oh, lol, sorry, I forgot for a moment that Sweden has 3 points, not 2 thanks to that insane comeback yesterday. I think Romania can't be ahead of Montenegro, no matter what happens, because Montenegro beat them, and there won't be another team with the same amount of points to make to it possible for Romania to be ahead of Montenegro in the head-to-head ranking. Same goes for Montenegro and Japan. Unless I am missing something, it's literally impossible for Montenegro to fall out of the Top8 at this point.

If both Norway and Netherlands finish with at least 6 points (for example, if both beat Korea), either Serbia or Denmark will fail to qualify for the OQT, so that Serbia v Denmark match in the last round can be a "life or death" situation for them. As for Montenegro, they should be in the Top8 at the very least, unless they lose their last two matches against Russia and Sweden, AND Romania beats Sweden and Japan, and that's not a likely outcome at the moment.

Well, I guess we still have a pretty good chance if Netherlands beats Korea and Norway beats at least one of Korea and Germany, but this is getting more and more dangerous for us. But we don't deserve that OQT spot anyway, so I won't be upset if these teams "fail" us.

Wow, Serbia beat Germany, Group I is getting even more confusing. Denmark is in a pretty bad situation again, they have to draw at the very least against Nethelands or they won't reach the Top8, and won't be at the OQT.

I have to tell you, it's strange to root for some very specific teams (NED, NOR, SWE, ROU, RUS) just to get that OQT spot for us, which we don't deserve at all. What we need now is Netherlands to beat Denmark in the next round, that will be a really important match for us. Meanwhile we will play against France for the 13th place and I couldn't give less shit about that match.

Damn, Spain was soooo close to secure their qualification into the SF.

The way things are going, I am getting less confident about us getting getting one of the ECh OQT spots. We might be doomed if Denmark beats Norway.

With Korea's defeat against Serbia we are getting closer to the situation where only the Top7 will qualify for the OQT.

[hide] Main RoundDecember 8th - December 11th, 2019 12 Nations, 2 Groups, the 1st and 2nd Nations from each Group will qualify for the Semifinals Group 1 Date & Time (GMT +9) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 December 8th 2019, h. 15:00 Norway 2 Denmark December 8th 2019, h. 18:00 Serbia 2 South Korea December 8th 2019, h. 20:30 Netherlands 3 Germany December 9th 2019, h. 15:00 South Korea 4 Norway December 9th 2019, h. 18:00 Germany 4 Serbia December 9th 2019, h. 20:30 Denmark 1 Netherlands December 11th 2019, h. 15:00 Serbia 3 Denmark December 11th 2019, h. 18:00 Norway 4 Germany December 11th 2019, h. 20:30 Netherlands 5 South Korea Group 2 Date & Time (GMT +9) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 December 8th 2019, h. 15:00 Montenegro 6 Japan December 8th 2019, h. 18:00 Romania 8 Russia December 8th 2019, h. 20:30 Spain 2 Sweden December 10th 2019, h. 15:00 Russia 7 Montenegro December 10th 2019, h. 18:00 Sweden 5 Romania December 10th 2019, h. 20:30 Japan 10 Spain December 11th 2019, h. 16:00 Romania 5 Japan December 11th 2019, h. 18:00 Montenegro 3 Sweden December 11th 2019, h. 20:30 Spain 5 Russia [/hide]

So let's see what we have... Group I 4 pts (ECh 3rd) 3 pts (ECh 10th) 2 pts (ECh 5th) 2 pts (already qualified for the Olympics) 1 pts (ECh 8th) 0 pts (ECh 11th) Group II 4 pts (ECh 2nd) 4 pts (ECh 12th) 2 pts (ECh 9th) 2 pts (ECh 6th) 0 pts (ECh 4th) 0 pts (already qualified for the Olympics) I guess Hungary still has a chance if Russia, Netherlands, Norway and Sweden don't flop in the main round.

And that's it for France. Which very likely means that the teams has to finish in the Top8 to get a OQT spot, maybe even Top7 if Korea flops in the main round.

I just hope that this is the end for Kim Rasmussen in Hungary, and we will continue with Vladimir Golovin as the coach of the national team. He knows this new generation of Hungarian players more than anyone and he won two gold medals with them at the U19 ECh and U20 WCh in the last two years.

Yeah, as I told you, this team wasn't ready for the WCh and for Tokyo. Maybe 4 years later.

As it was expected, (and I think it already became clear a couple of days ago) Asia is the 2nd best continent, so will be at the OQT. If everything goes as expected, and Korea doesn't win the WCh, this is how the groups will look like. Tournament 1 WCh 2nd WCh 7th Tournament 2 WCh 3rd WCh 6th ECh2 Tournament 3 WCh 4th WCh 5th ECh1

They are in a terrible situation with their ECh 8th place and likely elimination at the WCh group stage. They have to beat France to survive and that's not an easy task to say the least.

So if everything goes as expected, this is how the Main round would look like... Group I (ECh 5th) (ECh 3rd) (ECh 11th) (already qualified for the Olympics) (ECh 10th) (already qualified for the Olympics) Group II (ECh 12th) (ECh 9th) (ECh 4th) (ECh 2nd) (ECh 6th) One of these (I am guessing European) teams will qualify with the WCh gold, or if France wins, Russia will qualify with their ECh 2nd place. Which means that we have 8 European teams for the 6 OQT spots (I kinda doubt that Japan will reach the Top8). I guess Hungary still has a chance even if we don't reach the Top12 here with out ECh 7th place if the 4 teams who finished behind us there won't take more than two OQT spots here. The only bigger handball nation who can already be pretty much eliminated from the Olympic qualification after the group stage is Denmark, if they won't beat France.

Well, it looks like this younger Hungarian team just wasn't ready for this WCh. It's definitely not ready for Tokyo. Maybe for Paris...