To read a preview of the opening day in Herning click here
The three-day tournament in Gdansk will see hosts Poland alongside FYR Macedonia, Tunisia and Chile compete inside the 11,000-capacity ERGO Arena to win their ticket to Brazil.
Chile vs. Tunisia – ERGO Arena, Gdansk, Poland
Friday 8 April, 18.00 hrs (local time)
In the opening match of the weekend between the South Americans and north Africans both teams will be looking to get an early win so when they face the two strong European sides, a draw could be enough to progress.
Chile won bronze at the last Pan-American Championship held in Toronto, Canada, which automatically qualified their appearance in Poland and the side led by Coach Mateo Garralda have history of beating sides from Tunisia’s region in IHF events; their 30:28 23rd place-win over Algeria at Qatar 2015 in the IHF Men’s World Championship came courtesy of penalty shots.
Unfortunately fans in Gdansk won’t be able to see their influential captain – Marco Oneto. The Chilean pivot and former FC Barcelona player is well-known in Poland as he plays for Orlen Wisła Płock but he will be an avid spectator due to injury.
However, the second-top scorer in the 2015 Pan America championship Rodrigo Salinas is the key player to watch for Chile as his teammates will look to him to smash home the goals needed for the win.
Other players to watch out for include the three brothers – Emil (centre back), Erwin (left back) and Harald (left wing) Feuchtmann who play their club handball in Switzerland and Germany.
Unlike Chile, who have never qualified for an Olympic Games in handball, Tunisia participated in 1972 at the first-ever indoor handball at the Olympics and then again in 2000 and finally at the last Games, in London.
In a game they will be expected to win, Tunisia, with a strong handball tradition, will be led by Wael Jallouz, the left back for FC Barcelona who has scored 257 goals in an international career that has seen him play over 100 times for his country.
He will be assisted by the Al Jaysh (QAT) line player Issam Tej, who has pedigree, like many of his teammates of playing extensively in Europe and who was impressive at London 2012 as his side reached the quarter-finals.
Poland vs FYR Macedonia – ERGO Arena, Gdansk, Poland
Friday 8 April, 20.30 hrs (local time)
After disappointment in their home EHF EURO in January, where they crashed out in the Main Round after capitulating to Croatia 37:23 – despite destroying title holders and Olympic champions France 31:25 just over a week earlier, hosts Poland start the last leg of a possible journey to Brazil against the tough Macedonians in a sold-out ERGO Arena.
Poland will be looking to qualify for the Olympic Games for the fifth times after winning bronze in 1976 and finishing 9th at Munich in 1972, 7th at Moscow in 1980 and 5th at Beijing 2008.
Even if their new coach Talant Dujshebaev’s side lose their opening match, they will be strong favourites to beat Chile and then Tunisia in their final two matches which will be enough to grab a ticket to Rio 2016.
Dujshebaev knows the ERGO Arena well – it was in Gdansk at EHF EURO 2016 last January where he saw his experimental Hungary side not perform to his usual standards and the Olympic champion resigned in the wake of disappointment.
However, after the resignation of Polish coach Michael Biegler following his sides’ disappointing EHF EURO 2016 campaign, Dujshebaev – who coaches EHF Champions League side KS Vive Tauron Kielce in Poland – was asked to step in and is feeling at home.
He could not be more happy with his national squad either in a handball-mad country. With no fewer than seven Kielce players making the 16-man squad, the coach and the players know each other well and with influential goalkeeper Sławomir Szmal backing up starts such as left backs Michał Jurecki and Karol Bielecki or right back Krzysztof Lijewski it could be a mini-Kielce celebration on court come the end of the 60 minutes.
“The players will make sure to calm their emotions down,” said Szmal ahead of the game. “Will will emphasise our different style preferred by the new coach and we will do everything to play our hearts out.
“I also want to remind our fans that their support is priceless,” he continued. “We will do everything in order to satisfy them and make it to Rio because I really want our fans to celebrate with us on Sunday.”
A win for either team will put one foot of theirs on the plane to Rio but in the home sides’ way are the team from FYR Macedonia who have never qualified for an Olympic Games, finishing bottom of their qualification group for London 2012.
However, they are set to make history over the next few days as with the outstanding FC Barcelona right-back Kiril Lazarov they have a handball icon who can destroy teams by himself.
He is just 23 goals short of 1,000 international goals this weekend – one of the leading performers in handball history - which have come from just 120 games played; evidence of how influential the 35-year-old is. Even if Poland stops him, centre back Naumche Mojsovski from CSM Bucuresti and young guns like the 23-year-old left wing Dejan Manaskov are formidable.
Coach Ivica Obrvan is also coach for Chambery Savoie in France and the Croatian has named a veritable European Union of players with his team featuring players from Portugal, FYR Macedonia, Spain, Germany, Croatia, Romania, Turkey and France – the Macedonian Minister of Defence Borko Ristovski is also goalkeeper for Rhein-Neckar Lowen and will give Szmal a run for his money as the most effective shop-stopper.
For further information on the Rio 2016 Olympic Qualification Tournament in Gdansk, visit the Polish Handball Federation mini-site HERE.