Norway and France triumph; Slovenia in touching distance of Sweden

Which team other than the Slovenians could take the 16th spot for the EHF EURO in Sweden? The only remaining options are more mathematical than realistic: to qualify as the ‘third best team’ it all comes down to the results against the first and second teams in your group.

Both Belarus and Slovenia have 2 points against the top two teams in their group and have -20 goals and -9 goals repectively.

So only a 12-goal Slovenian loss against Montenegro on Sunday could send Belarus to Sweden.

The other remaining competitors in contention have zero points against the top two in their groups, and have a much weaker goal difference prior to their final group matches on Sunday: Iceland -29, Portugal -28 and Turkey -26.

On Saturday night, France kept their unbeaten record against Switzerland and Norway had a walk in the park against Lithuania in their final qualification match.

Those teams are already confirmed as group winners: Norway (Group 1), Serbia (2), Netherlands (3), Russia (6), France (7).

What will happen in Groups 4 and 5 will come to fruition on Sunday.   GROUP 1:

Norway vs Lithuania 36:19 (15:10)

Though Norway were confirmed as winner of Group 1 after Romania’s defeat against Belarus earlier, the defending EURO champions were focussed on keeping their unbeaten record on home court and taking …

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