2021 World Women's Handball Championship – European qualification

Last updated April 13, 2025

The European qualification for the 2021 World Women's Handball Championship, in Spain, was played over two rounds.

In the first round of qualification, 17 teams who were not participating at the 2020 European Championship were split into two groups of four and three groups of three teams. The top two teams of each group advanced to the second phase, where the teams joined the remaining 10 teams from the European Championship and played play-off games to determine the qualified teams.

Qualification phase 1

Seeding

The draw was held on 8 July 2020 in Vienna, Austria.^[1]^[2] The top two teams of each group advance to the play-off round. Each group will play their matches in a mini-tournament at a pre-selected location.

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4
Austria Belarus Slovakia Turkey North Macedonia	Ukraine Italy Switzerland Iceland Portugal	Lithuania Faroe Islands Kosovo Israel Finland	Greece Luxembourg

On 13 November 2020, the EHF decided to postpone the matches, scheduled for December 2020, to March 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[3]

All times are UTC+1.

Group 1

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Slovakia	3	3	0	105	64	+41	6	Qualification phase 2
2	Ukraine	3	2	1	87	76	+11	4	Qualification phase 2
3	Israel	3	1	2	65	86	−21	2
4	Luxembourg (H)	3	0	3	56	87	−31	0

Source: EHF
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) head-to-head goal difference; 4) head-to-head number of goals scored; 5) goal difference.
(H) Hosts

19 March 2021 17:00	Slovakia	31–28	Ukraine	d'Coque, Luxembourg City Attendance: 0^{[note 1]} Referees: Kijauskaitė, Žalienė (LTU)
	R. Bíziková, Szarková 7	(14–13)	Smolinh 9
	1× 4×	Report	2× 5×

19 March 2021 19:30	Israel	22–18	Luxembourg	d'Coque, Luxembourg City Attendance: 0^{[note 1]} Referees: Fahner, Kubis (POL)
	Vakrat 6	(11–6)	J. Wirtz 5
	5×	Report	1× 5×

20 March 2021 15:30	Slovakia	37–19	Israel	d'Coque, Luxembourg City Attendance: 0^{[note 1]} Referees: Fahner, Kubis (POL)
	Lancz 10	(18–11)	Vakrat 5
	1× 4×	Report	5×

20 March 2021 18:00	Ukraine	28–21	Luxembourg	d'Coque, Luxembourg City Attendance: 0^{[note 1]} Referees: Kijauskaitė, Žalienė (LTU)
	Smolinh 8	(14–12)	Welter 5
	6×	Report	2× 5×

21 March 2021 15:30	Ukraine	31–24	Israel	d'Coque, Luxembourg City Attendance: 0^{[note 1]} Referees: Fahner, Kubis (POL)
	Volovnyk 7	(16–10)	Vakrat 8
	2× 3×	Report	3× 3×

21 March 2021 18:00	Luxembourg	17–37	Slovakia	d'Coque, Luxembourg City Attendance: 0^{[note 1]} Referees: Kijauskaitė, Žalienė (LTU)
	Welter 4	(10–16)	Patrnčiaková 7
	1× 5×	Report	2× 4×

Group 2

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	North Macedonia (H)	3	3	0	75	57	+18	6	Qualification phase 2
2	Iceland	3	2	1	81	66	+15	4	Qualification phase 2
3	Lithuania	3	1	2	71	90	−19	2
4	Greece	3	0	3	64	78	−14	0

Source: EHF
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) head-to-head goal difference; 4) head-to-head number of goals scored; 5) goal difference.
(H) Hosts

19 March 2021 17:45	North Macedonia	24–17	Iceland	Jane Sandanski Arena, Skopje Attendance: 0^{[note 1]} Referees: Ciulei, Stoia (ROU)
	Ristovska 11	(11–8)	three players 3
		Report	1× 2×

19 March 2021 19:45	Lithuania	27–26	Greece	Jane Sandanski Arena, Skopje Attendance: 0^{[note 1]} Referees: Ivanović, Vujisić (MNE)
	Šponė 6	(12–12)	Zygoura 7
	2× 2×	Report	1× 6×

20 March 2021 17:45	North Macedonia	31–21	Lithuania	Jane Sandanski Arena, Skopje Attendance: 0^{[note 1]} Referees: Ivanović, Vujisić (MNE)
	Ristovska 8	(15–12)	Sparnauskaitė 5
	2× 6× 1×	Report	2× 4×

20 March 2021 19:45	Iceland	31–19	Greece	Jane Sandanski Arena, Skopje Attendance: 0^{[note 1]} Referees: Ciulei, Stoia (ROU)
	R. Jónsdóttir 7	(15–7)	Chatziparasidou 4
	3× 2×	Report	3× 1×

21 March 2021 17:45	Greece	19–20	North Macedonia	Jane Sandanski Arena, Skopje Attendance: 0^{[note 1]} Referees: Ciulei, Stoia (ROU)
	Chatziparasidou 6	(13–10)	Ristovska 10
	1× 1×	Report	1× 3×

21 March 2021 19:45	Iceland	33–23	Lithuania	Jane Sandanski Arena, Skopje Attendance: 0^{[note 1]} Referees: Ivanović, Vujisić (MNE)
	Thompson 7	(19–9)	Repečkaitė 8
	2× 7×	Report	1× 4×

Group 3

Pos	Team	Qualification
1	Turkey	Qualification phase 2
2	Portugal	Qualification phase 2
3	Finland ^[a]	Withdrawn

Source: EHF
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) head-to-head goal difference; 4) head-to-head number of goals scored; 5) goal difference.
Notes:

↑ Finland withdrew before the competition.^[4]

Group 4

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Austria (H)	2	2	0	63	42	+21	4	Qualification phase 2
2	Italy	2	1	1	46	59	−13	2	Qualification phase 2
3	Kosovo	2	0	2	42	50	−8	0

Source: EHF
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) head-to-head goal difference; 4) head-to-head number of goals scored; 5) goal difference.
(H) Hosts

19 March 2021 18:10	Kosovo	20–26	Austria	BSFZ Südstadt, Maria Enzersdorf Attendance: 0^{[note 1]} Referees: Cipov, Klus (SVK)
	Gjikokaj 6	(12–11)	Reichert 9
	2× 6×	Report	1× 4×

20 March 2021 18:00	Italy	24–22	Kosovo	BSFZ Südstadt, Maria Enzersdorf Attendance: 0^{[note 1]} Referees: Cipov, Klus (SVK)
	three players 5	(11–10)	Kameri 6
	2× 7×	Report	1× 3×

21 March 2021 16:30	Austria	37–22	Italy	BSFZ Südstadt, Maria Enzersdorf Attendance: 0^{[note 1]} Referees: Cipov, Klus (SVK)
	Reichert 10	(20–8)	Del Balzo, Djiogap 6
	1× 3×	Report	51×

Group 5

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Switzerland	2	1	1	0	51	43	+8	3^[a]	Qualification phase 2
2	Belarus (H)	2	1	1	0	46	38	+8	3^[a]	Qualification phase 2
3	Faroe Islands	2	0	0	2	31	47	−16	0

Source: EHF
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) head-to-head goal difference; 4) head-to-head number of goals scored; 5) goal difference.
(H) Hosts
Notes:

1 2 Belarus 25–25 Switzerland

19 March 2021 18:00	Faroe Islands	13–21	Belarus	Čyžoŭka-Arena, Minsk Attendance: 350 Referees: Duplii, Pobedrina (UKR)
	Henneberg Joensen 3	(7–15)	Ilyina, Kulak 4
	2× 6× 1×	Report	2× 2×

20 March 2021 16:00	Switzerland	26–18	Faroe Islands	Čyžoŭka-Arena, Minsk Attendance: 130 Referees: Duplii, Pobedrina (UKR)
	Kündig 11	(14–11)	Armgarðsdóttir Brimnes, Weyhe 4
	2× 6×	Report	2× 5×

21 March 2021 16:00	Belarus	25–25	Switzerland	Čyžoŭka-Arena, Minsk Attendance: 550 Referees: Duplii, Pobedrina (UKR)
	Kulak 8	(15–14)	Hodel 9
	2× 3×	Report	2×

Qualification phase 2

The teams played a home-and away series to determine the participants for the final tournament. The draw took place on 22 March 2021.^[5]^[6]

Seedings

Pot 1 (10 best ranked teams from the 2020 European Championship not already qualified for World Championship)	Pot 2 (10 teams from the qualification round)
Czech Republic Germany Hungary Montenegro Poland Romania Russia Serbia Slovenia Sweden	Austria Belarus Iceland Italy North Macedonia Portugal Slovakia Switzerland Turkey Ukraine

All times are UTC+2.

Overview

Team 1	Agg. Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Turkey	47–80	Russia	23–35	24–45
Czech Republic	55–49	Switzerland	27–27	28–22
Slovenia	45–35	Iceland	24–14	21–21
Slovakia	44–58	Serbia	19–26	25–32
Ukraine	40–50	Sweden	14–28	26–22
Austria	58–55	Poland	29–29	29–26
Hungary	87–31	Italy	46–19	41–12
Romania	68–42	North Macedonia	33–22	35–20
Portugal	50–66	Germany	27–32	23–34
Montenegro	55–47	Belarus	29–23	26–24

Matches

16 April 2021 16:30	Turkey	23–35	Russia	Hasan Dağı Spor Salonu, Aksaray Attendance: 220 Referees: Butskevich, Butskevich (BLR)
	Aydın 5	(12–19)	Dmitrieva 7
	2× 4×	Report	2× 4×

20 April 2021 18:30	Russia	45–24	Turkey	Dynamo Volleyball Arena, Moscow Attendance: 0^{[note 1]} Referees: Aghakishi, Aghakishi (AZE)
	Samokhina 7	(24–13)	Akgün 6
	1× 5×	Report	2× 4×

Russia won 80–47 on aggregate.

17 April 2021 20:10	Czech Republic	27–27	Switzerland	ROBE Aréna, Zubří Attendance: 0^{[note 1]} Referees: Lidacka, Lesiak (POL)
	Hrbková 9	(12–14)	Kündig 8
	1× 5×	Report	1× 4×

20 April 2021 20:15	Switzerland	22–28	Czech Republic	Mobiliar Arena, Gümligen Attendance: 0^{[note 1]} Referees: Merz, Kuttler (GER)
	Kähr 5	(11–14)	Jeřábková 15
	1× 4×	Report	1× 3×

Czech Republic won 55–49 on aggregate.

17 April 2021 17:30	Slovenia	24–14	Iceland	Sportni Park Kodeljevo, Ljubljana Attendance: 0^{[note 1]} Referees: Metalari, Nikolovski (MKD)
	Omoregie 9	(13–7)	Thompson 5
	1× 2×	Report	1× 3×

21 April 2021 21:45	Iceland	21–21	Slovenia	Íþróttamiðstöð Hauka, Hafnarfjörður Attendance: 0^{[note 1]} Referees: Smailagic, Smailagic (SWE)
	Júlíusdóttir 5	(8–9)	Stanko 8
	1× 2×	Report	1× 3×

Slovenia won 45–35 on aggregate.

17 April 2021 18:00	Slovakia	19–26	Serbia	Mestská Športová Hala Šaľa, Šaľa Attendance: 0^{[note 1]} Referees: Năstase, Stancu (ROU)
	Lancz 6	(10–11)	Kovačević 8
	1× 4×	Report	1× 3×

21 April 2021 18:00	Serbia	32–25	Slovakia	Sportski centar Voždovac, Belgrade Attendance: 0^{[note 1]} Referees: Alpaidze, Berezkina (RUS)
	Cvijić, Krpež Šlezak 7	(13–12)	Lancz 6
	1× 5×	Report	1× 1×

Serbia won 58–44 on aggregate.

17 April 2021 16:00	Ukraine	14–28	Sweden	Palace of Sports, Kyiv Attendance: 0^{[note 1]} Referees: Hatipoğlu, Şimşek (TUR)
	Smolinh 4	(7–15)	Roberts 4
	2× 3×	Report	1× 3×

21 April 2021 18:10	Sweden	22–26	Ukraine	Sparbanken Skåne Arena, Lund Attendance: 0^{[note 1]} Referees: Ciulei, Stoia (ROU)
	Andersson 6	(9–14)	Smolinh 6
	3×	Report	2× 2×

Sweden won 50–40 on aggregate.

16 April 2021 18:10	Austria	29–29	Poland	BSFZ Südstadt, Maria Enzersdorf Attendance: 0^{[note 1]} Referees: Simone, Monitillo (ITA)
	Neidhart 8	(13–13)	Nosek 6
	2× 2×	Report	5×

20 April 2021 18:00	Poland	26–29	Austria	Mareckie Centrum Edukacyjno-Rekreacyjne, Marki Attendance: 0^{[note 1]} Referees: Sá, Sá (POR)
	Kudłacz-Gloc 6	(11–15)	Frey 10
	2× 3×	Report	2× 2×

Austria won 58–55 on aggregate.

16 April 2021 16:05	Hungary	46–19	Italy	Érd Aréna, Érd Attendance: 0^{[note 1]} Referees: Fukala, Mohyla (CZE)
	Klujber 10	(23–10)	Babbo, Rotondo 5
	2×	Report	5×

18 April 2021 13:00	Italy	12–41	Hungary	Érd Aréna, Érd Attendance: 0^{[note 1]} Referees: Fukala, Mohyla (CZE)
	three players 3	(5–17)	Klujber, Lukács 6
	1× 4×	Report	2× 1×

Hungary won 87–31 on aggregate.

17 April 2021 17:00	Romania	33–22	North Macedonia	Dinamo Polyvalent Hall, Bucharest Attendance: 0^{[note 1]} Referees: Antić, Jakovljević (SRB)
	Neagu 12	(15–11)	Ristovska 8
	2× 2×	Report	1× 4×

21 April 2021 17:00	North Macedonia	20–35	Romania	Jane Sandanski Arena, Skopje Attendance: 0^{[note 1]} Referees: Praštalo, Balvan (BIH)
	Gjeorgjievska 6	(10–18)	Moisă 8
	1×	Report	3× 3×

Romania won 68–42 on aggregate.

17 April 2021 21:30	Portugal	27–32	Germany	Pavilhão Municipal do Luso, Luso Attendance: 0^{[note 1]} Referees: Carmaux, Mursch (FRA)
	Lopes 6	(10–17)	Stockschläder, Zapf 7
	1× 3×	Report	1× 4×

20 April 2021 17:30	Germany	34–23	Portugal	Westpress Arena, Hamm Attendance: 0^{[note 1]} Referees: Lindenbaum, Laron (ISR)
	Zapf 7	(15–11)	Sousa 6
	1× 4×	Report	2× 4×

Germany won 66–50 on aggregate.

16 April 2021 18:00	Montenegro	29–23	Belarus	Bemax Arena, Podgorica Attendance: 0^{[note 1]} Referees: Backović, Palačković (SLO)
	Jauković 9	(14–13)	Kulak 8
	2× 3×	Report	2× 3×

20 April 2021 17:00	Belarus	24–26	Montenegro	Čyžoŭka-Arena, Minsk Attendance: 600 Referees: Novikov, Rozhkov (UKR)
	Kulak 8	(11–15)	Radičević 7
	3× 1×	Report	1× 2×

Montenegro won 55–47 on aggregate.

Notes

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 The match was played behind closed doors due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

References

↑ "Road to Spain 2021 begins with qualification phase 1 draw". eurohandball.com. 7 July 2020.
↑ "17 teams learn first opponents on road to Spain 2021". eurohandball.com. 8 July 2020.
↑ "EHF postpones Women's World Championship 2021 Qualification". eurohandball.com. 13 November 2020.
↑ "Turkey and Portugal reach the second qualification phase". EHF. 2 February 2021. Retrieved 26 February 2021.
↑ "20 teams, 10 tickets: Play-offs to complete road to Spain". eurohandball.com. 12 March 2021.
↑ "10 play-off ties drawn for final step towards Spain". eurohandball.com. 22 March 2021.

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[table_note_FIN0.46494767976224-6] Finland withdrew before the competition.^[4]

[table_hth_SUI0.13451784203505-7] 1 2 Belarus 25–25 Switzerland

[Behind_closed_doors-4] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 The match was played behind closed doors due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

[1] "Road to Spain 2021 begins with qualification phase 1 draw". eurohandball.com. 7 July 2020.

[2] "17 teams learn first opponents on road to Spain 2021". eurohandball.com. 8 July 2020.

[3] "EHF postpones Women's World Championship 2021 Qualification". eurohandball.com. 13 November 2020.

[5] "Turkey and Portugal reach the second qualification phase". EHF. 2 February 2021. Retrieved 26 February 2021.

[8] "20 teams, 10 tickets: Play-offs to complete road to Spain". eurohandball.com. 12 March 2021.

[9] "10 play-off ties drawn for final step towards Spain". eurohandball.com. 22 March 2021.

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v t e 2021 World Women's Handball Championship qualification
Africa	2021 African Women's Handball Championship
Asia	2021 Asian Women's Handball Championship
America	North America and Caribbean South and Central America
Europe	2020 European Women's Handball Championship European qualification

2021 World Women's Handball Championship – European qualification

Contents

Qualification phase 1

Seeding

Group 1

Group 2

Group 3

Group 4

Group 5

Qualification phase 2

Seedings

Overview

Matches

Notes

References