Nail-biting second legs confirm World Championship line-up

After building a healthy lead in the first leg, Italy impressed further by going to Podgorica and winning 34:32 against Montenegro for a 66:58 aggregate victory. Umberto Bronzo and Simone Mengon scored eight times each for the Italians who qualify for the world championship for the first time since their debut in 1997.

A European debut at the tournament in Croatia, Denmark and Norway was denied in dramatic style, as North Macedonia beat the plucky Faroe Islands 34:26 in Skopje, cancelling out the Faroese's 34:27 success from the first leg in Torshavn.

Elias Ellefsen á Skipagøtu led the scoring for the Faroes with eight, but he was the only visiting player to hit at least five goals, whereas the Macedonians had four players reach that mark, spearheaded by eight from Zharko Peshevki.

Greece had given themselves a great chance of making their second appearance on the world stage, as they took a four-goal lead to Eindhoven, but the Netherlands showed their mettle and won 31:25 on home soil to break Greek hearts and qualify for back-to-back editions for the first time.

Spain survived a real scare in Novi Sad against a determined Serbia. The Spaniards won the first leg by four, and Serbia came agonisingly close to levelling the tie, winning 25:22 and thus falling to a 54:53 aggregate defeat. The bronze medallists from the previous two world championships can breathe a sigh of relief and look ahead to a 22nd successive qualification.

Two teams have their away performances to thank for their qualifications; Slovenia and Poland both lost their home legs to Switzerland and Slovakia, respectively, both by a single goal. But neither had issues on the road - Slovenia won 38:34 in Winterthur and Poland triumphed 33:25 in Topolcany.

Elsewhere in Qualifiers Europe Phase 2 Part 2;

• Czechia trailed Romania by one goal ahead of their second leg, but took a comfortable 29:20 win to qualify for the first time since 2015
• Iceland won 37:24 in Tallinn to secure the biggest aggregate win of the round, 87:49 against Estonia
• Austria have returned to the world championship after missing out on the 2023 tournament, they beat Georgia 37:31 in Vienna after winning by two in Tbilisi
• 69:49 was the aggregate result as Hungary soundly beat Lithuania in both legs, the second of which saw a 36:23 win for the hosts in Veszprem
• Bosnia Herzegovina restored some pride with a 26:26 draw in Tuzla, but a 10-goal win in the first leg for Portugal sees them reach a third world championship in a row  

The 17 European nations which will take part in the 32-team 2025 Men's IHF World Championship are as follows:

Croatia (host nation)
Denmark (host nation)
Norway (host nation)
France (Men's EHF EURO 2024 semi-finalist)
Germany (Men's EHF EURO 2024 semi-finalist)
Sweden (Men's EHF EURO 2024 semi-finalist)
Austria
Czechia
Hungary
Iceland
Italy
Netherlands
North Macedonia
Poland
Portugal
Slovenia
Spain

The world championship begins on 14 January 2025 and the final will be played on 2 February. Poreč, Varaždin and Zagreb in Croatia, Herning in Denmark and Oslo in Norway are the host cities for the event.

Main Photos © MACEDONIAN HANDBALL FEDERATION, hana.vrbkova@gmail.com, Stefan Ivanovic