Austria, Netherlands book tickets to World Championship Play-offs

Austria and Netherlands have become the final two teams to qualify for the World Championship Play-offs from the first phase of the qualification after both teams won their decisive qualifiers on Sunday.

Austria needed a win against Finland at home, and a win was what they got, as they comfortable beat Finland 32:20 in Group 2.

In Group 6 Netherlands had already made the first step last Wednesday when they beat Switzerland away 24:21, and they finished the job in style on Sunday, recording their second victory in this double-header, this time even by 13 goals, 34:21.

In Groups 1 and 3 the respective first-ranked teams, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Latvia, were already known, so the games played had no impact on the final ranking.

Slovakia beat Kosovo away 26:22, while Bosnia-Herzegovina recorded a 31:22 win against Lithuania in Group 1; Latvia beat Ukraine 22:21 and Cyprus held down Greece 27:24 in Group 3.

Czech Republic, in Group  5, already qualified on Saturday with a win against Turkey; Portugal, in Group 4, had become the first team to qualify for the play-offs already in autumn last year.

The play-offs will be played in June 2016. There will be nine double-headers, with the remaining 12 teams coming from the EHF EURO 2016 in Poland.

Photo: ÖHB