It’s time to for the teams in Group B to take the court again and there are some important questions to be answered: who will be the third team to join RHF and Serbia in the main round? And who will top the group?

Poland have had two tough and close losses already in the tournament and are now facing Cameroon. It is a must-win situation for the Poland team if they want to join the main round. Later that day, RHF and Serbia compete for the first place in the group and some important points to take along. 

Cameroon vs Poland 18:00 CET  

The race is on for third spot in Group B in Llíria: both teams Cameroon and Poland still have a shot to qualify for the main round. All they need to do is win this game. Cameroon currently rank fourth in the group, having allowed their opponents quite a lot goals (18:40 vs RHF and 18:43 vs Serbia). The goal for the African representative clearly is to stabilise their defence and at the same time increase their offensive efforts. 

Poland hold the third place currently which will mean the qualification to the main round if that standing is still accurate after today’s match. The European competitor had two close games against the already qualified RHF and Serbia, losing by only three and four goals, respectively. The poor shooting performance, especially from the 7m line, was a problem for the Poland team in both games so far. 

Nevertheless, Poland enter this game as favourites. But if Cameroon start off strong and force the European side to make mistakes, then it could be an open game. 

RHF vs Serbia 20:30 CET 

RHF and Serbia almost moved alike in their first two games of the 25th IHF Women’s World Championship so far. They both collected easy wins against the African representative Cameroon (RHF 40:18 and Serbia 43:18), while they also both had a solid fight against the Poland to record their second win. 

Tonight, they will be eager to take this one home as well not only because the first place in the preliminary round group comes with some prestige but even more because the points to take along to the main round are of great importance. 

Ahead of the game, Serbia captain said about RHF: “It is a strong selection that plays fast and dynamic handball. We must seriously prepare to offer good resistance.

We need to fight to the end and give our best. Our weapon is defence, so I hope that we will repeat the defence against Poland and that we may be able to come out with a positive outcome. We all know that the RHF team are the Olympic runners-up, but we are going to the end, we are not giving up and I hope that we will manage to play one good game.”

It will be another exciting match to follow in Llíria, that is for sure! 

Photo: RFEBM / J. Navarro