Argentina vs Netherlands Prediction & Betting Tips - Handball World Championship

Prediction published on 11/01/2022, 06:25  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 11/01/2023 at 07:25 in Handball World Championship Predictions

The Netherlands are up against Argentina in their opening match in the 2023 Men's World Handball Championships. This is the preliminary round and a Group F fixture with the other two countries in this group are Norway and North Macedonia. To make it into the main round, the Netherlands need to just avoid finishing bottom of the group. If they don't do that, then they'll go into the President's Cup to fight it out for the lower rankings. They received a wild card to take part in these championships. This is only the second time they've played in the world championships and there's been a wait of 62 years for it to happen. They have been making improvements though in recent years. 2022 saw them finish tenth in the European Championships after making it into the main round for the first time. Current form isn't great and they lost both of their pre-tournament friendlies against France and the Czech Republic. Wins over Portugal and Belgium last year indicate they may put in a creditable performance in these world championships.

Argentina finished second behind Brazil in the South and Central American Championships to book their place in the world championships for the 14th time in a row. In two of the last six tournaments they have managed to make it into the main round and in 2021 had a final placing of tenth after narrowly failing to qualify for the quarter finals. It didn't go so well for them later in the year at the Olympics finishing bottom of the 12 competing countries. Three friendlies have been played this month with a win over Bahrain but losses to Romania and Spain. They'll certainly find this more difficult than last year's match against Bolivia that they won 70-8. The Netherlands can just edge what should be a close battle.