Two European teams and two Asian teams will collide in Group C of the 2025 IHF Men’s World Championship, which will take place in the Žatika Sport Centre in Poreč, Croatia, with a big favourite to secure the first place – the runners-up from the previous edition of the world handball flagship competition, France.

The European powerhouse, six-time world champions, most recently on their home court, in 2017, have already won the title when they played in Croatia, in 2009, and will eye another medal, their 13th in the history of the IHF Men’s World Championship.

However, France have seen plenty of changes over the last months, since their untimely elimination at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, when the hosts were seconds away from making the semi-finals, but eventually bowed out in the quarter-final against Germany, after a last-gasp comeback from their European rivals.

That saw France enter a new era, with star Nikola Karabatic retiring from handball, as well as goalkeeper Vincent Gerard saying his goodbye to the national team. More pressure has been added on Guillaume Gille, who saw left back Timothey N’Guessan retire from international handball, while right back Dika Mem underwent a surgery for a shoulder injury, which made him doubtful for appearing at Croatia/Denmark/Norway 2025.

However, France are still one of the teams to beat and have a positive head-to-head balance with all the three opponents which they will face in Group C, albeit with low sample, as they played three times against Austria, two times against Qatar and only once against Kuwait in their entire history.

Currently, France have won 121 matches at the IHF Men’s World Championship and in the past 14 years, they have only conceded seven losses. They faced Austria only once in the world handball flagship competition, at Egypt 2021, when they secured a clear 35:28 win in the preliminary round.

The other two wins for France came at the EHF EURO, first in 2018, when they dominated Austria, 33:26, in the preliminary round, with the two teams facing off also in January 2024, in the preliminary round, when France secured a 33:28 win, with all three matches providing entertaining clashes.

France also beat Qatar twice, first in the final of the 2015 IHF Men’s World Championship, 25:22, when the European powerhouse secured their fifth world title, with the second win coming by a larger margin, 35:20, at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, in the preliminary round.

Kuwait, the fourth-placed side at the 2024 AHF Asian Men’s Handball Championship, look to be the odd one out, as they had never faced Austria, but lost their only match against France by double digits, 14:30, in the preliminary round at the 2001 IHF Men’s World Championship.

Nevertheless, Kuwait have won four of the 11 matches played against Qatar in continental competition, at the AHF Asian Men’s Handball Championship and at the Asian Games. More recently, Kuwait conceded losses in the main round of the 2020 AHF Asian Men’s Handball Championship, 23:29, and in January, at the 2024 AHF Asian Men’s Handball Championship, 20:24, as well as at the 2022 Asian Games, 24:29.

As Qatar are the top dog in the Asian Handball Federation, winning the continental competition in the last six editions, they will try to improve from their last performance at the IHF Men’s World Championship, when they ended up on the 22nd place in 2023.

That prompted two coaching changes, as the legendary Valero Rivera was first replaced by Goran Djokic, with another coach from the Balkans, Veselin Vujovic, now leading the side at the 2025 IHF Men’s World Championship.

But while Qatar are favoured to make it to the main round – three teams qualify from this group to the next phase – they will surely find it difficult against Austria, an up-and-coming side in Europe, which have been difficult to beat even by tougher opponents in the past year.

With a strong core, where back Nikola Bilyk, line player Tobias Wagner and goalkeeper Constantin Mostl have been shining – Austria will certainly aim for a better finish than the 19th place in 2019 and the 26th place in 2021, at their last two appearances in the competition.

In their only meeting against Qatar, the European side has conceded a 27:29 loss in the Round of 16 at the 2015 IHF Men’s World Championship, when Qatar went on to the final, but several key players from that Asian side are still in the squad, albeit closer to the end of their careers rather to their start.