Qualifiers draw complete for Men’s EHF EURO 2022

Reigning world champions Denmark will face North Macedonia, Switzerland and Finland in their bid to reach Men’s EHF EURO 2022 after the qualifiers draw in Vienna divided 32 nations into eight four-team groups.

Bronze medallists from the EHF EURO 2020, Norway, meet Belarus, Latvia and Italy in group 6, while the record EHF EURO winners from Sweden will play Montenegro, Romania and Kosovo in group 8.

Neighbours Germany and Austria will go head to head once more following their meeting in the main round at EHF EURO 2020 in Vienna. They have been drawn in group 2 alongside Bosnia and Herzegovina and Estonia.

The qualifiers will begin on 5 November 2020 and run until 2 May 2021 with the nations battling for 20 places at the final tournament in Hungary and Slovakia which will be played between 13-30 January 2022.

Qualification groups overview

Group 1: France, Serbia, Belgium, Greece.
Group 2: Germany, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Estonia.
Group 3: Czech Republic, Russia, Ukraine, Faroe Islands.
Group 4: Iceland, Portugal, Lithuania, Israel.
Group 5: Slovenia, Netherlands, Poland, Turkey.
Group 6: Norway, Belarus, Latvia, Italy.
Group 7: Denmark, North Macedonia, Switzerland, Finland.
Group 8: Sweden, Montenegro, Romania, Kosovo.

The winners and runners-up of all eight groups as well as the four best third-place teams will earn a spot at the finals tournament. To determine which four third-place teams are ‘the best’, an overall ranking including all eight third-placed teams will be established once the qualifiers have been completed.

This ranking will take into account only the results of the four matches against the two teams that finished first and second in the respective group; the results of the two matches against the team that finished last in that group will not be considered.

Draw reaction on Instagram

Denmark's Johan Hansen, Teemu Tamminen from Finland, the Netherlands' Kai Smits and Vid Kavticnik of Slovenia spoke live on the EHF EURO Instagram channel to give their reaction to the draw.

EHF EURO Cup for the hosts and the last finalists

Hungary and Slovakia as the co-hosts, and Spain (champions) and Croatia (runners-up) as the EHF EURO 2020 finalists, are qualified directly for the finals tournament. Those four teams will play in the EHF EURO Cup when other nations play their qualifiers.

Playing schedule

The first round of the Men’s EHF EURO 2022 qualifiers will be played in the first week of November 2020. The basic match schedule is as follows:

Round 1: Wednesday 4 - Thursday 5 November 2020
Round 2: Saturday 7 - Sunday 8 November 2020
Round 3: Wednesday 10 - Thursday 11 March 2021*
Round 4: Saturday 13 - Sunday 14 March 2021*
Round 5: Wednesday 28 - Thursday 29 April 2021
Round 6: Sunday 2 May 2021 (18:00 CEST)

* France, Germany, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia and Sweden, who are participating in the Olympic Games Qualification Tournaments on 12/14 March 2021, will play their rounds 3 and 4 of the EHF EURO 2022 qualifiers on 6/7 and 9/10 January 2021.

Download the fixtures for each round here.