The third matchday of the 2018 IHF Men’s Beach Handball World Championship in Kazan, Russia sees the start of the Main Round and the Consolation Round.

2018 IHF Men’s Beach Handball World Championship

Matchday 3: Main Round and Consolation Round – Day 1

- Record winners Brazil in danger of missing out on quarter-final spot
- Croatia with the performances and statistics on their side with one foot in the last eight already
- Hosts Russia face Denmark and Qatar
- Consolation round is a mini Pan-America vs Oceania tournament

For the match schedules and results click HERE. All games will be streamed live HERE. All times local.

Main Round: Group 1
2016 world champions Croatia and Spain, who finished fifth at the last edition, take four points each into the main round, with the Spanish just ahead of the Croatians on points. Hungary and Iran have two points each in third and fourth place while Uruguay and Vietnam lie in fifth and sixth, having entered the main round without any points.

The title holders continue their championship defence with a match-up against newcomers Vietnam in their morning game as the Asian side have to quickly adjust their emotions from pure joy – after qualifying through to the main round in their debut world championship – to deal with the Croatians who are the tournament top scorers, with 144 points (48 per game) and have scored the joint-most goals (73, with Sweden).

The goalscoring prowess of Croatia is quite simple – tournament leading marksman Ivan Juric has 40 points from 20 goals, while his teammate Lucijan Bura has 36 points from 18 shots and at the other end Dominik Markovic in the Croatian goal has a save rate of 37%, making him the fourth-best goalkeeper in Kazan, however, Spain’s Carlos Calle Lobo has stopped 15 of the 38 shots he has faced to sit third on 39% and help his side to the second meanest defence, letting in just 93 points in three games.

Hungary start against Uruguay and then face Croatia in the afternoon game which should be a fascinating encounter while Iran face Spain and then Vietnam and will be hoping that they can convert a few more of their opportunities which sees them with just a 63.3% strike rate to lie 11th in the table.

Main Round: Group 1

Matches
09:50 CRO vs VIE 
09:50 URU vs HUN 
09:50 IRI vs ESP
14:50 URU vs ESP
14:50 CRO vs HUN
14:50 IRI vs VIE

Main Round: Group 2
This group has the potential to be one of the most interesting at Kazan in either the men’s or women’s competitions with Qatar, Russia, Denmark and Oman all on two points each after a mixed bag of results for the four teams in the preliminary round.

This will all suit Sweden, who sit top of the group with four points carried through while Brazil are in unfamiliar territory, sitting bottom at the start of play on zero. Their opening game against Qatar is a repeat of the Budapest 2016 semi-final, where the South Americans won 2:0, but a lot of personnel changes since, sees just a handful of players on each team face each other again.

Hosts Russia open their main round campaign against Denmark, while the Swedes – who have won all three of their games at Kazan via shootouts take on Oman, who beat Qatar yesterday in a shootout themselves.

The afternoon games see a Scandinavian duel between Denmark and Sweden, and with the Danes boasting the best defence at Kazan 2018 (87 points conceded, 29 per game) and Sweden scoring the second-most points (141 – 47 per match) it could be an interesting match.

Qatar and Russia then play the final match of the day on the central court with the hosts hoping that they can confirm their quarter-final spot already, ahead of the second round of main round games tomorrow, after starting their main round off with a European clash against Denmark.

The hosts top the ruthlessness in front of goal charts at Kazan with a 73.2% strike rate (71 goals from 97 attempts).

Main Round: Group 2

Matches
11:30 QAT vs BRA 
11:30 DEN vs RUS 
11:30 OMA vs SWE 
16:30 OMA vs BRA
16:30 DEN vs SWE
19:00 QAT vs RUS

Consolation Round
The consolation round is a mini Pan-America vs Oceania competition with Argentina, Australia, New Zealand and the USA playing each other as they fight to end their world championship campaign with some victories.

Consolation Round

Matches
09:00 ARG vs AUS 
09:00 NZL vs USA 
14:00 USA vs ARG
14:00 AUS vs NZL