Norway vs Macedonia Prediction & Betting Tips - Handball World Championship

Prediction published on 11/01/2023, 11:26  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 11/01/2023 at 12:26 in Handball World Championship Predictions

The top two teams in Preliminary Round Group F face each other in their opening fixture. Norway take on North Macedonia in this 2023 Men's World Handball Championships match with the other two countries in this group being the Netherlands and Argentina. With the top three in the group qualifying for the Main Round, it'd be a major shock if either of these countries failed to progress. Norway qualified for this tournament via their placing in the 2022 European Championships in which they finished fifth. Norway have never won the world championship but have come close to doing so. They lost in the final in both 2017 and 2019 but only reached the last eight two years ago. This month has already seen them host and win the Golden League winning three matches against the USA, Brazil and Portugal, all by at least a seven-goal margin. Norway come into this tournament unbeaten in six games and five of them being won.

North Macedonia made it into these world championships via the European play-offs beating Romania and the Czech Republic. This is the sixth time in a row that they have qualified for the finals but only once have they failed to make it out of the preliminary round. The 2021 world championships saw them reach the main round but they only won one of their six matches and lost the rest to finish 23rd. Their best ever finish is the ninth place they achieved in 2015, their only top ten finish. The 2022 European Championships didn't go well for them with all three preliminary round matches lost and finishing a lowly 22nd. Two friendlies played this month have seen them beat Israel by a point but Croatia beat them by a six-goal margin. Two of their last three games have been lost as they were also beaten by Montenegro on December 28.