Friday could see more quarter-finals berths being handed in Baerum and Zagreb, but there are also some high-profile teams which could be out of contention by the end of the day, as Portugal face Spain in a crucial clash in Group III of the main round.

Day two of the main round in Zagreb gets underway with a sold-out Arena Zagreb welcoming a clash between the two teams who have already been knocked out of contention – Argentina and Cape Verde. A win for the African side would confirm their best-ever ranking.

Next up is Egypt taking on Slovenia, with the European side stating they need two wins from their last two games to grab a quarter-final spot. This is followed by Croatia facing a tough test against the impressive Icelanders, the co-hosts knowing that a win is imperative at this stage.

Bahrain and the United States of America are looking to extend their winning campaigns in the President's Cup as they duel with Japan and Cuba, respectively.

MAIN ROUND GROUP III

• 15:30 CET Spain vs Portugal

The Spanish side did not start the main round as they wanted, as on Wednesday, they were narrowly defeated by Norway, 24:25. The fight was very tight until the end, and despite leading by five goals early in the second half, Jordi Ribera's team ultimately suffered their first defeat at Croatia/Denmark/Norway 2025.

Following this setback, they remained on three points and dropped to the fourth place in the very competitive Group III. In their next encounter, the Spanish team need to defeat Portugal to stay in fight for a quarter-final berth, facing a must-win situation.
Portugal now in a better position, as they are still unbeaten and top the group with five points. After three wins in as many matches at the group stage, Paulo Pereira's team dropped their first point at the tournament on Wednesday, sharing spoils with Sweden in a high-scoring and thrilling match (37:37).

Now Portugal's destiny is in their own hands, as two wins in the remaining main round games against Spain and Chile will secure their progression to the quarter-final. In this case, they will write history, as their best performance so far at the World Championship dates back to Egypt 2021, where they finished tenth.

The next game against Spain will be particularly important for Portugal, and it will be the second mutual encounter of the two teams at the World Championship. The first one took place 28 years ago, at Japan 1997, when the Portuguese made their debut at this level, and Spain celebrated a 29:26 victory. 

Spain have never conceded a loss against Portugal, winning all seven international matches, most recently a doubleheader in the EHF EURO 2014 Qualifiers, 34:20 and 30:23.

• 18:00 CET Sweden vs Brazil

These two teams last met much more recently, at the previous IHF Men's World Championship at Poland/Sweden 2023, where co-hosts Sweden earned a 26:18 win in their opening match at the tournament. They now face off at a more advanced competition stage, and as they are level on four points, it will be a crucial game for both of them. 

Sweden are unbeaten at Croatia/Denmark/Norway 2025, but following two wins over Japan and Chile, they split the points with two European rivals: 29:29 against Spain and 37:37 against Portugal. Now their goal is to get back to winning ways, and a possible victory against Brazil will improve their chances for a quarter-final berth.

Brazil have already stunned a Scandinavian team at this World Championship, defeating Norway in their opening game, 29:26. After that, the South Americans claimed two more victories at the tournament, against USA in the group stage (31:24) and against continental rivals Chile at the start of the main round (28:24).

"In the second half, we lost some concentration but still managed to win.  I'm very happy with this victory, as we are still in the competition," Brazil's left back Haniel Langaro said after the match on Wednesday.

Brazil are currently third in the table, behind Sweden only on goal difference, and they stay in contention for their first-ever quarter-final berth at the World Championship. 

• 20:30 CET Chile vs Norway

Chile fought hard in their opening main round match against fellow South American side Brazil and even took the lead with eight minutes to go, but ultimately lost by four goals. With no points on their account, the South American team are out of contention for a quarter-final spot.

"The fight was really tight until the end, and I would like to congratulate my players for their performance at the tournament. We believe that we can do something special and beat the superior teams, and we have been at least very competitive with all rivals," Chile's coach Aitor Etxaburu said.

Now Chile will face Norway, which faces their first must-win match against Spain and secured the win and need to double down in the match against Chile. On Wednesday, the Scandinavian team mounted a strong comeback against Spain in a hard-fought encounter, which allowed them to retain some chances for a quarter-final spot, as are on two points.

However, Norway's win was marred by Sander Sagosen's injury, as the 29-year-old was helped off the court in the closing minutes of the game and will not return to the 2025 IHF Men’s World Championship, needing a four-week break. Sagosen needed a single goal to reach the 200-goal mark at the IHF Men’s World Championship.

Chile and Norway will meet for the second time at the IHF Men’s World Championship, after the Europeans took a clear win at Germany/Denmark 2019, 41:20. More recently, their paths also crossed at the 2021 Olympic Qualification Tournament, and the Norwegians were a stronger side again, this time 38:23. 

MAIN ROUND, GROUP IV

• 15:30 CET Argentina vs Cape Verde

The first-ever meeting between these two sides is set to be a classic: both teams have a solitary win so far at Croatia/Denmark/Norway 2025 and both teams have identified this their ‘final’ match.

Argentina, undergoing a transition in their squad which is without the Simonet brothers and which features nine world championship debutants, are using their remaining games to gather experience, while Cape Verde are hoping to get their best-ever ranking in their third appearance.

Key goalkeeper Elcio Fernandes was sorely missed by Jorge Rito’s side in their loss to Croatia last time out with the Cape Verde coach telling ihf.info he would be having a late health check on Thursday to see his availability. 

That 20-goal defeat against co-hosts Croatia was hard for the African side (44:24), who were left disappointed after impressing in the preliminary round.

“We have to change a lot to get two points against Argentina,” said Cape Verde’s Ivo Santos to ihf.info. “It's our goal to win against them, but we have to change our attitude and our personality on the court, because it’s going to be really tough.”

On the opposite side, Argentina’s Gaston Mourino, who made his tournament debut against Slovenia in their 34:23 loss last time out, is looking forward to the clash.

"The match against Cape Verde will be our biggest challenge,” he said. “It will be a very even match. They will play very seriously, and if we are not at our top level, it will be quite difficult. We will prepare ourselves in the best possible way to face this match as a final."

• 18:00 CET Egypt vs Slovenia

Egypt were not happy after their 27:24 loss against Iceland on Wednesday (22 January), a game which they were never in any contention of getting something from, and one which handed them their first loss of the championship.

They will be looking to get back to winning ways against a Slovenia side who have stated clearly that they will need two wins from their remaining two games to grab a last-eight spot.

“Egypt plays very good handball, their players are playing all around the world, so we know each other well,” said Slovenia’s Blaz Blagotinsek to ihf.info. “They have an excellent coach who knows us well, so we will need to prepare 120% for them.”

“At this stage of the competition, there are no more calculations,” added teammate Blaz Janc. We have two matches ahead of us, and we must win both if we want to dream about the quarter-finals. Egypt has been among the top world teams in recent years and has excellent players who play in top clubs. We will definitely need to be extra careful with our technical mistakes, lost balls and defence.

“We all know that Egypt have outstanding individuals in attack who we need to stop in order to achieve a positive result.”

Coach Uros Zorman – who has called the clash against Egypt a “real handball treat” – was forced into making one squad change following their victory over Argentina last time out with right winger Nejc Cehte out of the championship after breaking at least two ribs in the clash.

The experienced Jule Dolenec – who became Slovenia’s highest-scorer ever at Paris 2024 last year with 713 goals – was called up, joining the team almost immediately after joining from his Croatian club side, based just under three hours from Zagreb.

"I will try to help as best I can,” said the 36-year-old to rokomenta-zveza.si about his call-up. “I have quite a bit of experience at this level and I hope I can bring added value on and off the court. I hope we will fulfil the basic goal and make it to the quarter-finals.”

• 20:30 CET Croatia vs Iceland

These two sides have met 15 times in total, according to hrs.hr with Croatia taking eight wins, Iceland five and two draws. The most recent time they met was at the 2024 European Championship, with Snorri Gudjonsson’s Iceland taking a 35:30 victory.

Gudjonsson will be going up against former national teammate Dagur Sigurdsson knowing a win against the co-hosts will put his side through to the quarter-finals and their best ranking for 15 years (2011, 6th).

With a free-flowing squad blended with youth and experience and anchored by the legendary Aron Palmarsson, Iceland have won all four of their games so far and have been the most impressive in Zagreb to date. Most impressive within their team is goalkeeper Viktor Hallgrimsson, currently sitting on a 41.9% save ratio overall.

Croatia have not been able to show any consistency yet at home in what has been a frustrating campaign. A good performance and win against Iceland would rectify that and with rumours abounding about possible returns for the previously-thought long-term injuries of captain Domagoj Duvnjak, plus Luka Cindric, anything is possible.

Earlier this week, Croatia assistant coach Denis Spoljaric told Croatian TV station RTL that the pair had trained, but not at 100%, while Sigurdsson used the pre-match media day to say that that Cindric in particular had not trained and that there was “nothing new” on Duvnjak’s injury. The Croatian handball federation website – hrs.hr – stated pre-game that “…what would especially lift us up is the hope that at least one of the three very important injured players, namely captain Domagoj Duvnjak, David Mandić and Luka Cindric, will recover.”

Whatever the status regarding the injured players, an IHF Men’s World Championship record-scoring win against Cape Verde (44:24) allowed Sigurdsson to fully-rotate his team to get all of the players in the “rhythm” of the tournament and allow him to have many options from the bench. It has also done a lot to ease the tension about any possibility of missing out on the quarter-finals, with the host nation players relishing the chance to test themselves again.

“They play fast handball with good defence and have a good goalkeeper, but we also have them too,” said Croatia’s Filip Glavas to ihf.info. “I hope that we will do a good job and analyse them, but our coach already did some preparations for them. He knows them the best, knows their weak points and we hope to take on those opportunities.”

“They are strong in all positions. They have players who can individually cause problems, they have a good defence and a great goalkeeper. This will be a big challenge for us," explained Sigurdsson to local media, before turning his attention to coaching against the country he was born in.

“I'm used to it, the people are used to it too, we have a lot of Icelandic coaches around the world so we often play against our own country. It's not a problem. Actually, if anything, I just want to win even more. I've coached against Iceland as the coach of Japan, Germany and Austria, so it’s nothing new."

PRESIDENT'S CUP - GROUP II

• 15:30 CET Japan vs Bahrain

Bahrain threw off their President's Cup campaign with a convincing 39:26 win against Cuba and are aiming to keep the positive streak to remain at the top of the group. They will finish on their worst-ever position in the competition, beating the previous mark of the 23rd place, set in 2011 and 2017.

One thing Bahrain needs to improve for the game against Japan is their backcourt shooting, which remained at 50% efficiency, and fast breaks as they only converted two out of five against an easier opponent, Cuba.

Japan are in a similar position but are having a rocky path at Croatia/Denmark/Norway 2025. After three straight defeats in the group phase, their President's Cup start was not better when it came to the results. 

In a clash against the United States of America, their poor attacking efficiency and 19 turnovers came in the way of their main characteristic, speed, and suffered a narrow 25:27 defeat. 

Now, coach Toni Gerona's team need to redeem themselves against the fellow Asian opponent. Their last duel at the Olympic Games in 2021 ended with a 32:30 Bahrain win, but before that, Japan won two clashes in a row - at the 2021 IHF Men’s World Championship (29:25) and the bronze medal match at the Asian Championship in 2020 (27:26).

• 18:00 CET United States of America vs Cuba

The United States of America got their hands on their first win at Croatia/Denmark/Norway 2025, putting them in a favourable position to finish among the top two teams in Group II. Robert Hedin's team survived Japan's short comeback and won 27:25, celebrating their third-ever win at the World Championship. For a team that finished last in five out of seven competitions, avoiding the same outcome is the biggest motivation.

Despite a larger numbers of turnovers and still moments of hasty attacks, the USA had their fulcrum in their defence and goalkeeper Douglas Otterstrom who had the best day at the office. From zero saves in group phase (0/15), he transformed into a powerful shot-stopper and ended the day with 39% save efficiency. A similar defensive display which can produce more easy goals can once again propel wings Sean Corning and Samuel Hoddersen to key players in what would be their second win in Poreč, Croatia.

Cuba, who are back at the World Championship after 16 years, are struggling and have the worst defence among the four teams in Group II, despite their goalkeepers Adan Martinez and Magnol Suarez Fis being able to stay at around 30% save efficiency against Bahrain due to their individual efforts. However, their attack is not on a better score, as their nine-metre shooting is at 17% and their mistakes are often punished by opponents' easy goals.

Two teams met at the Pan American Games in 2023 when the USA won by 30:28 and in total, Cuba holds only two wins against the USA from eight meetings.