Denmark vs Croatia Prediction & Betting Tips - Handball World Championship

Prediction published on 18/01/2023, 11:30  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 19/01/2023 at 06:30 in Handball World Championship Prediction

It's all going well for Denmark as they bid to win a third successive Men's World Handball Championship. They take on Croatia in their first of three matches in Group IV of the main round. It's a group they already top having carried four points from the preliminary round. They are ahead of Egypt who also have four points with Croatia and Bahrain on two points, while Belgium and the USA have no points. The Danes were in top form in the preliminary round beating Belgium, Bahrain and Tunisia, all by at least 13 points. After this match, the Danes face the USA and then Egypt in a game that should decide who wins the group. The top two go into the last eight so Denmark have few concerns about not achieving that. Not winning the group though means they could face Sweden in the last eight and they are the last team to beat Norway.

Croatia are in third place in this main round group, a couple of points behind the top two. They still have to play Belgium and Bahrain and will be more confident of winning those games than this one against the defending world champions. Croatia finished second behind Egypt in Group G of the preliminary round. They had wins over the USA and Morocco, recovering after losing their opening match to Egypt by nine goals.  Croatia finished 15th in the 2021 World Championships and eighth in last year's European Championships. They have only lost one of their last 12 matches but the loss to Egypt indicates they won't get a big win over Denmark.