Iceland vs Portugal Prediction & Betting Tips - Handball World Championship

Prediction published on 10/01/2023, 15:22  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 12/01/2023 at 17:03 in Handball World Championship Prediction

Iceland take on Portugal in Group D of the 2023 Men's World Handball Championships. The other two countries in this Preliminary Round group are Hungary and South Korea with the top three teams going into the Main Round. Whoever finishes bottom heads into the President's Cup to determine the lower rankings. Iceland are three places below Portugal in the world rankings. This is their seventh consecutive world championship appearance and they haven't failed to get to the Main Round since 2009. The 2022 European Championships saw them finish in sixth place so they'll be confident of making it through to the Main Round of this tournament. Iceland qualified via the European play-offS and come into these championships having won five of their last six games. Their only defeat came in a friendly against Germany on January 8. The day before that game they'd recorded a 31-30 win over the Germans after trailing at half-time.

Portugal also qualified via the European play-offs. They finished 10th in the 2021 Men's World Handball Championships. That was the first time they'd qualified for these championships since 2003. Last year saw them finish only 19th in the European Championships. Portugal have had two recent wins in the Norway Golden League with victories over the USA and Brazil. Before those successes however, they lost heavily to Norway and ended up in second place in the final table.These two countries last met in January of last year in the European Championships with Iceland winning by four goals. They should be able to repeat that victory in this opening Group D game.