Slovenia and France open the last day of Group B in Katowice with a clash for the top spot. Co-hosts Poland enter a must-win fray against Saudi Arabia if they want to go to the main round in Krakow.

• 18:00 CET Slovenia vs France

The final day of the group phase in Katowice starts with a clash between two top teams ready to fight for first place in Group B. Winning means taking four points into the main round and having the best start against three teams from group A.

Both France and Slovenia proved to be against Saudi Arabia and completely devastated 11,000 Polish fans who saw their team falter.

France had a somewhat tougher match against Poland, which was on the verge of defeating the Olympic champions. The strong French side geared up in a crucial part of the match and won, just like they easily did against Saudi Arabia. 

It will be a clash of two strong defensive plays, as Slovenia showed perfection in a 32:23 victory over Poland. It will be interesting to see how Uroš Zorman's team will stop a strong and penetrative French attack.

"The French are not only the favourites in this match, but also for winning the World Championship. And it's been like that for the last 20 years. They are far ahead of everyone else in terms of physical strength. However, we are not going into the match with a white flag. We will give our best against them", said Slovenia's head coach Uroš Zorman to rokometna-zveza.si.

France and Slovenia have played 18 times against each other, five of those at the World Championship. Slovenians never won against Olympic Champions at the world handball flagship competition, and their most recent defeat was at the 2017 Men's World Championship, when they suffered a 25:31 defeat in the semi-finals.

• 20:30 CET Poland vs Saudi Arabia

Poland have no luck as the host of major handball events. After the historic EHF EURO 2016 23:37 defeat against Croatia and being eliminated from the chance to play the semi-finals on home ground, all eyes were on the 28th IHF Men's World Championship.

Poland opened the world handball flagship competition with a great performance against France, losing by only two goals (24:26). Both team and fans were confident they could repeat the same against Slovenia, but the Polish players were powerless against Uroš Zorman's strong team.

Now, if Poland want to keep the dream alive and progress to the main round, they have to win over Saudi Arabia, with whom they share the bottom of the table.

Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, are on a good way to the President's Cup after two tough defeats in two rounds. If you consider that they never won against any European side in history, it would be a big surprise if they outclass Poland. However, everything is possible at the World Championship.

Tomasz Gębala was honest about the situation in Poland in his talk with zprp.pl: "We have to win against Saudi Arabia, then we have to do our job in three more matches in Krakow. But first, we have to get there, and we know we are taking 0 points with us. We just need to play like we know and show to everyone that the performance against Slovenia was not our true ability."

Only two times have these two teams crossed paths at the World Championship. Both in 2013 and 2015, the Polish side had a double-digit win over Saudi Arabia.