While attention has been focused on the Icelandic national football team in recent days, the national handball team is also trying to qualify for the European championships and its win against Israel does not guarantee Iceland a place in Poland next year, as many people had previously thought.
Iceland beat Israel in Tel Aviv this week and will play Montenegro in Reykjavík this evening. As things stand now, Iceland is in second place in Group 4 and has a place in the finals, but if Iceland loses to Montenegro and Serbia beats Israel, then Serbia would climb to second and Iceland would be third.
One third place team from the seven qualifying groups will also advance to the finals, based on points scored. But that’s a little complicated…
At the end of all the qualifying matches, all of the points accrued in matches against the bottom placed team will be erased and only the third place team’s results against the top two teams will be taken into account.
Far better to avoid the confusion, in fact, and beat top place team Montenegro this evening! Israel beating Serbia would also benefit Iceland.
The game starts at 17.00 this evening and is the final Icelandic game in the qualification charge for Poland 2016, as reported on mbl.is.
