Italian comeback highlights World Championship qualification

EUROPEAN QUALIFICATION, PHASE 1:

• centre back Marco Mengon and left back Alessio Moretti both netted seven times to help Italy beat Türkiye 37:27 in a dramatic match on Sunday
• Türkiye had won the first leg 37:28 thanks to 10 goals each from Doruk Pehlivan and Ramazan Döne
• needing at least a 10-goal win to advance, Italy led the return leg by 12 with 50 seconds left (37:25); goals from Baran Nalbantoglu and Doruk Pehlivan then came too late for Türkiye
• Türkiye left back Doruk Pehlivan netted 17 times across the two matches
• Slovakia took the biggest win in the first leg – 33:23 against Kosovo, led by seven goals from left back Jakub Prokop – and could afford to lose the return leg by three, 28:25
• the Baltic derby went to Estonia, who narrowly defeated Latvia 30:29 in the first leg – despite a 12-goal outing from Latvia left back Ralfs Geislers – before winning the home leg 28:22
• building a 30-goal difference, Finland recorded the biggest aggregate win by far as they clearly beat Great Britain twice: 25:16 and 33:12, with left wing Benjamin Helander contributing 19 goals in total
• a fifth pairing involving Luxembourg and Israel has been postponed regarding the current situation in Israel

2025 IHF Men’s World Championship, European qualification phase 1:
(first leg / second leg)

> Türkiye vs Italy 37:28 / 27:37 -> Italy win 65:64 on aggregate
> Slovakia vs Kosovo 33:23 / 25:28 -> Slovakia win 58:51 on aggregate
> Latvia vs Estonia 29:30 / 22:28 -> Estonia win 58:51 on aggregate
> Great Britain vs Finland 16:25 / 12:33 -> Finland win 58:28 on aggregate

All eight matches are available on demand on EHFTV.

Italy, Slovakia, Estonia, Finland, and Luxembourg or Israel move on to the first part of phase 2 – joining Lithuania, Ukraine, and Belgium – with matches to be scheduled for 13/14 and 16/17 March 2024.

The draw for the first part of phase 2 takes place at the EHF office in Vienna on Tuesday 21 November at 11:00 CET and will be streamed live on the Home of Handball YouTube channel.

The second part of phase 2 – the final stage of qualification – in May 2024 features 18 teams participating at the EHF EURO 2024. World Championship co-hosts Croatia, Denmark – who are also the defending champions – and Norway, as well as the three best-ranked teams at the EHF EURO, directly qualify for the 32-team World Championship.

photo © 2023 Luigi Canu / FIGH