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National coach Alfred Gislason
Photo:
Tilo Wiedensoler / imago images/camera4+
The German handball players received solvable preliminary round tasks in the draw for the 28th World Cup from January 11th to 29th, 2023 in Poland and Sweden.
The team of national coach Alfred Gislason will meet Qatar, Serbia and the fifth place in the upcoming Africa championship in the group phase of the 32-man tournament.
At the ceremony in Katowice, the two former world handball players Magnus Wislander and Slawomir Szmal drew lots.
"We got a good draw overall - also with a view to the possible tableau in the main round," said Gislason, but also said: "With Qatar as Asian champions and Serbia we got two very good teams without a doubt.
The fifth Africa representative is probably an unknown quantity in every respect.
All in all it's a good and interesting group, but not an easy one either.«
32 teams take part
The preliminary round is played in eight groups of four.
The top three in each case move into the four main round groups with six teams each.
Should Germany advance, defending champions Denmark, Norway and Croatia would be possible opponents there.
Only the top two teams from the main round advance to the knockout stages, starting with the quarter-finals.
27 of the 32 participants have been determined so far, only the five best of the upcoming Africa Championship are missing.
The game will be played in nine cities, five in Sweden (Stockholm, Malmö, Jonköping, Kristianstad, Gothenburg) and four in Poland (Katowice, Kraków, Plock, Gdansk).
Germany will play their Group E preliminary round matches at the 11,000+ capacity Spodek Arena in Katowice.
The games are scheduled for the 13th against Qatar, on the 15th against Serbia and on January 17th against the Africa representative.
At the last World Cup in 2021 in Egypt, Germany only finished twelfth – it was the worst place in the 25 tournaments that have been played so far.
A DHB men's team has been world champion in indoor handball three times: in 1938, 1978 and 2007.
The eight World Cup preliminary round groups:
Group A: Spain, Montenegro, Chile, Iran
Group B: France, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Slovenia
Group C: Sweden, Brazil, Africa 2, Uruguay
Group D: Iceland, Portugal, Hungary, South Korea
Group E: Germany, Qatar, Serbia, Africa 5
Group F: Norway, North Macedonia, Argentina, Netherlands
Group G: Africa 1, Croatia, Africa 3, USA
Group H: Denmark, Belgium, Bahrain, Africa 4
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