Qatar vs Norway Prediction & Betting Tips - Handball World Championship

Prediction published on 20/01/2023, 10:10  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 20/01/2023 at 11:11 in Handball World Championship Predictions

Second placed Norway face Qatar in Group III of the 2023 Men's World Handball Championships. Their penultimate group game is against Qatar who are fifth with no points and already eliminated. Norway have six points and that puts them behind Germany (who they face in their final group game) on goal difference and two points ahead of the Netherlands in third who they beat in the preliminary round. A win for Norway should see them in the quarter finals, especially if the Netherlands are beaten by Germany on the same day. Norway won all three of their preliminary round games, though they only beat the Dutch team by a single goal. So far in this main round group, they have beaten Serbia by three goals but had to come from behind to do so. That made it nine wins in a row for the Norwegians who are bidding to reach a fourth successive world championship quarter final.

Qatar may choose to select some fringe players for this match. They are already out of the running for a place in the last eight. Qatar have lost three of their four matches in these championships. Their only win came against Algeria in the preliminary round. That secured third place in preliminary round Group E and their place in the main round. No points were carried forward though so that put them on the back foot for this group. Their opening main round match saw them give the Netherlands a real fright. Qatar were four goals up at the break but ended up losing the match by two goals.  They will hope to beat bottom-of-the-group Argentina in their final game to boost their final position. Only one of their last five matches has been won and another loss is highly likely here