The final 32 games of the 2024 IHF Men’s and Women’s Beach Handball World Championships main round take place on Friday (21 June) at the 'Pingtan International Beach Sports Base' on Pingtan Island, People's Republic of China.

With eight teams already qualified through to the quarter-finals; four in the men’s competition and four in the women’s competition – four places in each competition are still available for the knockout stages of the global event.

All teams will play one game in the morning session and one in the afternoon/evening session with the top four teams in each main round group – two groups in each competition – moving through to the quarter-finals.

For all matches on Day 4, see the end of this article.

Crunch day for 2018 women’s world champions Greece, title-holders Germany need one win

While Argentina, Denmark, Portugal and Brazil can breathe easily now they are qualified through to the quarter-finals in their respective groups, big games await for the other teams still hoping to make the knockout stages.

In Group I, Croatia will be hoping to win both their games against Asian opposition – Philippines and China – to progress, while the Philippines know that a win against the Croatians will likely be enough for them to secure a last eight spot in their debut appearance. Portugal face two mouthwatering clashes with a match against neighbouring Spain first and then a clash against Argentina which is likely to be the group decider.

With Denmark and Brazil already qualified through to the quarter-finals from Group II, they will play off in their evening clash, but the big game of the day will be Norway vs Greece.

Both teams currently sit on zero points and the losers of this one will see their dreams of a quarter-final spot start to fade. Whoever wins will need to follow up with another win in their final game – 2018 world champions Greece playing Netherlands and Norway taking on Germany – and hope other results and maths goes their way.

Ahead of China 2024 it would have surprised many observers that Germany did not secure their quarter-final spot on the opening day of the main round, but following their preliminary group loss against Brazil, they had to wait another day.

They showed their quality against Netherlands on Thursday to win via shoot-out and know that if they win their opening match against Denmark on Friday, they will be safely into the business end of the competition.

In the consolation round Puerto Rico will look for their first-ever win in their debut world championship when they face Australia in the morning and continental rivals the USA in the afternoon. Asian champions Vietnam take on the USA and Australia in the other two games of the day.

Can debutants Tunisia squeeze into men’s quarter-finals?

European champions Hungary and ANOC World Beach Games champions Brazil are already confirmed for the quarter-finals, with their afternoon clash in Group I likely providing the group winner, but coming up from behind are Denmark, who could still top the group, depending on results.

Oman know their morning clash against Tunisia is key to their possible progression and should they get the win, their clash against Spain could be a play-off for the final qualification spot through.

Standing in their way are African champions Tunisia in their debut world championship and they have, arguably, the tougher path to a possible last eight spot should they beat Oman, having to face Denmark in their afternoon game.

Title-holders and The World Games champions Croatia, secured their passage through to the quarter-finals with a tight win over Qatar on Thursday in Group II, leaving the Asian champions sweating on their last eight spot.

To ensure they make it there they have to beat Argentina in their opening game with little room to manoeuvre, having lost to the USA in the group stages – the team above them on two points currently.

However, the South Americans, like their opponents on zero points, also know that a loss will severely harm their progress. Although with the possibility of beating the USA in the evening game on the cards for Argentina, there could be a three-way tie on two points each if Qatar lose to Portugal and the North American side lose both their games, their first against Croatia.

Portugal know that a win against Germany or Qatar will be enough to see them through and when the dust settles, everyone can sit back and watch Croatia take on Germany with one of the teams likely to taste defeat for the first time at China 2024 and the winners, taking the group title.

Qatar and Oman understand well that anything can happen at this stage. Back at the 2018 IHF Men’s Beach Handball World Championships in Kazan there was a four-way group tie between Brazil, Denmark, Qatar and Oman. All four teams ended with four points each and so it went down to the head-to-head record between the teams in all six of the games featuring them, with Qatar and Oman losing out.

In the consolation round China and Puerto Rico face other in the morning session with one team guaranteed their first win of China 2024, they face Australia and Uruguay in the afternoon games respectively, with those two teams clashing in the second match of the morning session.

All games will be streamed live on the IHF Competitions YouTube channel (geo-restrictions will apply) click HERE for more information.

Match schedule – Friday 21 June 2024
all times local

Men’s Competition

Consolation Round
0930 URU vs AUS
1020 PUR vs CHN
1630 AUS vs CHN, PUR vs URU

Main Round, Group I
0930 HUN vs ESP 
1020 DEN vs BRA, OMA vs TUN
1630 DEN vs TUN
1720 HUN vs BRA, OMA vs ESP

Main Round, Group II
1110 CRO vs USA, ARG vs QAT
1200 POR vs GER
1900 CRO vs GER, POR vs QAT, ARG vs USA

Women’s Competition

Consolation Round
0930 PUR vs AUS, USA vs VIE
1630 USA vs PUR
1720 AUS vs VIE

Main Round, Group I
1020 PHI vs ARG
1110 POR vs ESP, CHN vs CRO
1810 POR vs ARG, PHI vs CRO, CHN vs ESP

Main Round, Group II
1200 DEN vs GER, NED vs BRA, NOR vs GRE
1950 DEN vs BRA, NED vs GRE
2040 NOR vs GER