2017 IHF Emerging Nations Championship

The 2017 IHF Emerging Nations Handball Championship was the second edition of the IHF Emerging Nations Championship held in Bulgaria under the aegis of International Handball Federation. The tournament was held in two cities, Gabrovo and Veliko Tarnovo, from 12 to 18 June 2017.

A total of sixteen countries participated in the tournament out of which 15 are European except China.

Faroe Islands defended their title by defeating Turkey 26–25 in the final.

Three best-ranked teams from this tournament earned the right to participate at the 2nd phase of qualification for EURO 2020

Venues

The championship were played at two venues in Gabrovo and Veliko Tarnovo in Bulgaria.

Veliko Tarnovo
Gabrovo	GabrovoVeliko Tarnovo
Orlovetz Sports Hall Capacity: 1,920

Palace of Culture and Sport Capacity: 1,600

Participating teams

Country	Previous appearances in championship
Albania	1 (2015)
Andorra	1 (2015)
Armenia	1 (2015)
Azerbaijan	0 (debut)
Bulgaria	1 (2015)
China	1 (2015)
Cyprus	0 (debut)
Faroe Islands	1 (2015)
Georgia	0 (debut)
Great Britain	1 (2015)
Ireland	1 (2015)
Kosovo	1 (2015)
Luxembourg	0 (debut)
Malta	1 (2015)
Moldova	1 (2015)
Turkey	0 (debut)

1 Bold indicates champion for that year. Italics indicates host.

Draw

The draw was held on 7 March 2017 at 19:00.

Seeding

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3
Cyprus Turkey Luxembourg China	Faroe Islands Kosovo Georgia Bulgaria	Albania Andorra Armenia Azerbaijan Great Britain Ireland Moldova Malta

Referees

The following referees were appointed for the championship:

Referees
Referees Algeria Youcef Belkhiri Sid Ali Hamidi Austria Denis Bolic Christoph Hurich Bulgaria Georgi Doychinov Yulian Goretsov China Zhou Yunlei Cheng Yufeng Egypt Yasmina El-Saied Heidy El-Saied Great Britain Jason Hollis Nicholas Le-mon Italy Simone Zendalli Stefano Riello	Referees Kosovo Sherif Xhema Besfort Jahja Montenegro Jelena Vujačić Andelina Kažanegra Poland Maciej Łabuń Jakub Jerlecki Portugal Vania Sá Marta Sá Serbia Marko Boričić Dejan Marković Sweden Maria Bennani Safia Bennani Ukraine Marina Duplii Olena Kaverina
Algeria	Youcef Belkhiri Sid Ali Hamidi
Austria	Denis Bolic Christoph Hurich
Bulgaria	Georgi Doychinov Yulian Goretsov
China	Zhou Yunlei Cheng Yufeng
Egypt	Yasmina El-Saied Heidy El-Saied
Great Britain	Jason Hollis Nicholas Le-mon
Italy	Simone Zendalli Stefano Riello
Referees
Kosovo	Sherif Xhema Besfort Jahja
Montenegro	Jelena Vujačić Andelina Kažanegra
Poland	Maciej Łabuń Jakub Jerlecki
Portugal	Vania Sá Marta Sá
Serbia	Marko Boričić Dejan Marković
Sweden	Maria Bennani Safia Bennani
Ukraine	Marina Duplii Olena Kaverina

Preliminary round

The top two teams from each group advanced to the knockout stage.

All times are local (UTC+3).

Tie-breaking criteria

For the group stage of this tournament, where two or more teams in a group tied on an equal number of points, the finishing positions will be determined by the following tie-breaking criteria in the following order:

Number of points obtained in the matches among the teams in question
Goal difference in the matches among the teams in question
Number of goals scored in the matches among the teams in question (if more than two teams finish equal on points)
Goal difference in all the group matches
Number of goals scored in all the group matches
Drawing of lots

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Turkey	3	3	0	120	62	+58	6	Quarterfinals
2	Kosovo	3	2	1	115	72	+43	4
3	Ireland	3	1	2	106	121	−15	2
4	Albania	3	0	3	62	148	−86	0

12 June 2017 14:00	Turkey	25–24	Kosovo	Vasil Levski Palace of Culture and Sports, Veliko Tarnovo Referees: Bennani, Bennani (SWE)
Döne 7	(13–12)	Beshiri 5
3× 8× 1×		3× 5×

12 June 2017 16:00	Albania	33–50	Ireland	Vasil Levski Palace of Culture and Sports, Veliko Tarnovo Referees: Zhou, Cheng (CHN)
Shingjini 10	(18–25)	Bregazzi 13
1× 4×		2× 5×

13 June 2017 14:00	Kosovo	47–30	Ireland	Vasil Levski Palace of Culture and Sports, Veliko Tarnovo Referees: Duplii, Kaverina (UKR)
Jupa 10	(23–14)	J. Krohn, O'Brien 6
2× 5×		3× 4×

13 June 2017 16:00	Turkey	54–12	Albania	Vasil Levski Palace of Culture and Sports, Veliko Tarnovo Referees: Hollis, Le-Mon (GBR)
Öztürk 10	(27–6)	Shingjini 6
1× 4×		2× 11× 1×

14 June 2017 14:00	Ireland	26–41	Turkey	Vasil Levski Palace of Culture and Sports, Veliko Tarnovo Referees: Doychinov, Gpretsov (BUL)
J. Krohn 7	(14–18)	Kanberoğlu 10
2× 4×		2× 4×

14 June 2017 16:00	Kosovo	44–17	Albania	Vasil Levski Palace of Culture and Sports, Veliko Tarnovo Referees: El-Saied, El-Saied (EGY)
Tahirukaj 9	(20–8)	Shingjini 7
2× 3×		1× 2×

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Luxembourg	3	3	0	111	86	+25	6	Quarterfinals
2	Georgia	3	2	1	91	81	+10	4
3	Great Britain	3	1	2	80	89	−9	2
4	Malta	3	0	3	65	91	−26	0

12 June 2017 18:00	Luxembourg	35–29	Georgia	Vasil Levski Palace of Culture and Sports, Veliko Tarnovo Referees: Doychinov, Gpretsov (BUL)
Muller 10	(18–14)	Orjonikidze, Tskhovrebadze 6
2× 6×		3× 5×

12 June 2017 20:00	Malta	18–24	Great Britain	Vasil Levski Palace of Culture and Sports, Veliko Tarnovo Referees: Sá, Sá (POR)
Di Pilato 9	(8–12)	Negrete Lindsay 10
3× 5×		2× 5×

13 June 2017 18:00	Georgia	34–26	Great Britain	Vasil Levski Palace of Culture and Sports, Veliko Tarnovo Referees: Vujačić, Kažanegra (MNE)
Orjonikidze 7	(17–11)	Negrete Lindsay 6
3× 7×		4× 8×

13 June 2017 20:00	Luxembourg	39–27	Malta	Vasil Levski Palace of Culture and Sports, Veliko Tarnovo Referees: Boričić, Marković (SRB)
Muller 8	(17–11)	Baldacchino 8
3× 4×		3× 4×

14 June 2017 18:00	Great Britain	30–37	Luxembourg	Vasil Levski Palace of Culture and Sports, Veliko Tarnovo Referees: Belkhiri, Hamidi (ALG)
Goodwin 10	(11–20)	Muller 9
3× 5×		2× 9× 1×

14 June 2017 20:00	Georgia	28–20	Malta	Vasil Levski Palace of Culture and Sports, Veliko Tarnovo Referees: Zhou, Cheng (CHN)
Bulbulashvili, Orjonikidze 5	(19–9)	Harrison 4
3× 4×		3× 2×

Group C

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Cyprus	3	3	0	96	64	+32	6	Quarterfinals
2	Bulgaria (H)	3	2	1	101	75	+26	4
3	Azerbaijan	3	1	2	93	96	−3	2
4	Andorra	3	0	3	53	108	−55	0

12 June 2017 18:30	Cyprus	25–22	Bulgaria	Sportna Zala, Gabrovo Referees: Bolic, Hurich (AUT)
Argyrou 12	(11–12)	Dimitrov 11
3× 8×		2× 7×

12 June 2017 20:30	Andorra	23–31	Azerbaijan	Sportna Zala, Gabrovo Referees: El-Saied, El-Saied (EGY)
Pascual 6	(6–15)	Butenko 10
4× 4×		3× 1×

13 June 2017 18:00	Bulgaria	41–34	Azerbaijan	Sportna Zala, Gabrovo Referees: Jerlecki, Łabuń (POL)
Dimitrov 15	(20–15)	Askerov 10
2× 9× 1×		2× 6× 1×

13 June 2017 20:00	Cyprus	39–14	Andorra	Sportna Zala, Gabrovo Referees: Xhema, Jahja (KOS)
Antreou 9	(19–7)	Bernabé, Pascual 3
2× 5×		2× 5×

14 June 2017 18:00	Bulgaria	38–16	Andorra	Sportna Zala, Gabrovo Referees: Hollis, Le-Mon (GBR)
Dimitrov 16	(19–6)	Toha 4
2× 7×		1× 3×

14 June 2017 20:00	Azerbaijan	28–32	Cyprus	Sportna Zala, Gabrovo Referees: Sá, Sá (POR)
Askerov 8	(13–18)	Argyrou 14
3× 6×		4× 6× 2×

Group D

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Faroe Islands	3	3	0	114	59	+55	6	Quarterfinals
2	China	3	2	1	95	64	+31	4
3	Moldova	3	1	2	98	82	+16	2
4	Armenia	3	0	3	31	133	−102	0

12 June 2017 14:00	Armenia	13–46	Moldova	Sportna Zala, Gabrovo Referees: Zendali, Riello (ITA)
Sahakyan 5	(7–20)	Untu 10
3× 1×		3× 2×

12 June 2017 16:00	China	23–30	Faroe Islands	Sportna Zala, Gabrovo Referees: Belkhiri, Hamidi (ALG)
Liu, Wang J. 6	(7–15)	Klein Olsen 6
3× 8×		4× 3×

13 June 2017 14:00	China	43–12	Armenia	Sportna Zala, Gabrovo Referees: Bennani, Bennani (SWE)
Wang J. 11	(21–4)	Sahakyan 6
2× 4×		2× 5× 1×

13 June 2017 16:00	Faroe Islands	40–30	Moldova	Sportna Zala, Gabrovo Referees: Bolic, Hurich (AUT)
Krogh 7	(21–16)	Zacaciurin 8
2× 2×		1× 2×

14 June 2017 14:00	Moldova	22–29	China	Sportna Zala, Gabrovo Referees: Vujačić, Kažanegra (MNE)
Zacaciurin 7	(11–15)	He 7
3× 1×		3× 4×

14 June 2017 16:00	Faroe Islands	44–6	Armenia	Sportna Zala, Gabrovo Referees: Zendali, Riello (ITA)
Klein Olsen 8	(18–1)	Sahakyan 3
1× 3×		1× 1×

Knockout stage

9–16th place bracket


13th place			13–16th place semifinals			9–16th place quarterfinals			9–12th place semifinals		Ninth place



Ireland	31

		Malta	22

Malta	34		Ireland	33

		Armenia	23					Azerbaijan	41

	Azerbaijan	39

			Armenia	21

Malta	36		Azerbaijan	31

Andorra	25					Moldova	45

	Great Britain	42

		Albania	15

15th place	Albania	23		Great Britain	34	Eleventh place

			Andorra	32					Moldova (pen.)	35

Armenia	23		Moldova	48		Ireland	26

Albania	24			Andorra	14			Great Britain	39

9–16th place quarterfinals

16 June 2017 14:00	Ireland	31–22	Malta	Vasil Levski Palace of Culture and Sports, Veliko Tarnovo Referees: Vujačić, Kažanegra (MNE)
J. Krohn 9	(15–9)	Di Pilato 7
2× 2×		4× 6×

16 June 2017 14:00	Azerbaijan	39–21	Armenia	Sportna Zala, Gabrovo Referees: Duplii, Kaverina (UKR)
Butenko 10	(21–7)	Sahakyan 6
1× 4×		4× 1×

16 June 2017 16:00	Great Britain	42–15	Albania	Vasil Levski Palace of Culture and Sports, Veliko Tarnovo Referees: Bennani, Bennani (SWE)
Whaley 8	(19–8)	Shingjini 6
3× 4×		1× 7×

16 June 2017 16:00	Moldova	48–14	Andorra	Sportna Zala, Gabrovo Referees: El-Saied, El-Saied (EGY)
Untu 12	(24–6)	Toha, Travesset 3
1× 2×		3×

13–16th place semifinals

17 June 2017 18:00	Malta	34–23	Armenia	Vasil Levski Palace of Culture and Sports, Veliko Tarnovo Referees: Jerlecki, Łabuń (POL)
Naudi 9	(18–13)	Sahakyan 8
1× 4×		3× 2×

17 June 2017 20:00	Albania	23–32	Andorra	Vasil Levski Palace of Culture and Sports, Veliko Tarnovo Referees: Sá, Sá (POR)
Lala 7	(9–11)	Toha 12
4× 3×		2× 7×

9–12th place semifinals

17 June 2017 14:00	Ireland	33–41	Azerbaijan	Vasil Levski Palace of Culture and Sports, Veliko Tarnovo Referees: Zhou, Cheng (CHN)
T. Krohn 8	(18–20)	Malyarevich 14
2× 3×		3×

17 June 2017 16:00	Great Britain	34–35	Moldova	Vasil Levski Palace of Culture and Sports, Veliko Tarnovo Referees: Duplii, Kaverina (UKR)
Negrete 9	(17–17)	Untu, Zacaciurin 11
4× 3×		2× 4×
FT: 33–33 Pen: 1–2

15th place game

18 June 2017 10:00	Armenia	23–24	Albania	Sportna Zala, Gabrovo Referees: Zhou, Cheng (CHN)
Sahakyan 10	(12–11)	Shingjini 7
4× 8×		4× 6×

13th place game

18 June 2017 12:15	Malta	36–25	Andorra	Sportna Zala, Gabrovo Referees: Hollis, Le-Mon (GBR)
Naudi 7	(21–10)	three players 6
4×		1× 2×

Eleventh place game

18 June 2017 16:45	Ireland	26–39	Great Britain	Sportna Zala, Gabrovo Referees: El-Saied, El-Saied (EGY)
Bregazzi 7	(12–20)	Goodwin 7
2× 5× 1×		5×

Ninth place game

18 June 2017 14:30	Azerbaijan	31–45	Moldova	Sportna Zala, Gabrovo Referees: Vujačić, Kažanegra (MNE)
Butenko 9	(14–22)	Zacaciurin 14
2× 2×		2× 3×

Championship bracket


Fifth place			5–8th place semifinals			Quarterfinals			Semifinals		Final



Turkey	32

		Georgia	26

Georgia	28		Turkey (OT)	35

		China	31					Cyprus	32

	Cyprus	36

			China	26

China	30		Turkey	25

Bulgaria	38					Faroe Islands	26

	Luxembourg	23

		Kosovo	34

Seventh place	Luxembourg	31		Kosovo	30	Third place

			Bulgaria	37					Faroe Islands	33

Georgia	25		Faroe Islands	30		Cyprus	25

Luxembourg	32			Bulgaria	24			Kosovo	32

Quarterfinals

16 June 2017 18:00	Turkey	32–26	Georgia	Vasil Levski Palace of Culture and Sports, Veliko Tarnovo Referees: Xhema, Jahja (KOS)
Döne 15	(16–15)	Orjonikidze 8
3× 4×		2× 5×

16 June 2017 18:00	Cyprus	36–26	China	Sportna Zala, Gabrovo Referees: Boričić, Marković (SRB)
Georgiou 9	(16–9)	Liu Z. 7
3× 6×		3× 5×

16 June 2017 20:00	Luxembourg	23–34	Kosovo	Vasil Levski Palace of Culture and Sports, Veliko Tarnovo Referees: Jerlecki, Łabuń (POL)
Krier 6	(11–17)	Dedaj 9
2× 6×		4× 7×

16 June 2017 20:00	Faroe Islands	30–24	Bulgaria	Sportna Zala, Gabrovo Referees: Belkhiri, Hamidi (ALG)
Sigurbjørnsson 9	(13–14)	Yakubov 6
2× 2×		1× 4×

5–8th place semifinals

17 June 2017 14:00	Georgia	28–31	China	Sportna Zala, Gabrovo Referees: Zendali, Riello (ITA)
Tskhovrebadze 9	(11–15)	Wang J. 12
3× 4×		3× 6× 1×

17 June 2017 16:00	Luxembourg	31–37	Bulgaria	Sportna Zala, Gabrovo Referees: Boričić, Marković (SRB)
Zekan 6	(13–20)	Dimitrov 13
3× 11×		3× 6×

Semifinals

17 June 2017 18:00	Turkey	35–32 (ET)	Cyprus	Sportna Zala, Gabrovo Referees: Doychinov, Gpretsov (BUL)
Biçer 11	(13–15)	Argyrou 10
3× 5× 1×		2× 4×
FT: 26–26 ET: 3–3, 6–3

17 June 2017 20:00	Kosovo	30–33	Faroe Islands	Sportna Zala, Gabrovo Referees: Bolic, Hurich (AUT)
Dedaj, Jupa 6	(11–15)	Krogh 9
1× 4×		2× 5× 1×

Seventh place game

18 June 2017 14:15	Georgia	25–32	Luxembourg	Vasil Levski Palace of Culture and Sports, Veliko Tarnovo Referees: Xhema, Jahja (KOS)
Bulbulashvili 5	(10–15)	Muller 8
2× 5×		3× 9×

Fifth place game

18 June 2017 16:30	China	30–38	Bulgaria	Vasil Levski Palace of Culture and Sports, Veliko Tarnovo Referees: Belkhiri, Hamidi (ALG)
Wang J. 8	(11–18)	Atanasov 8
1× 4× 1×		3× 3× 1×

Third place game

18 June 2017 18:45	Cyprus	25–32	Kosovo	Vasil Levski Palace of Culture and Sports, Veliko Tarnovo Referees: Zendali, Riello (ITA)
Fotiou 9	(12–16)	Tahirukaj 8
2× 5×		2× 5× 1×

Final

18 June 2017 21:00	Turkey	25–26	Faroe Islands	Vasil Levski Palace of Culture and Sports, Veliko Tarnovo Referees: Boričić, Marković (SRB)
Biçer 6	(11–13)	Krogh 9
3× 6×		4× 5×

Final standings

Rank	Team
	Faroe Islands
	Turkey
	Kosovo
4	Cyprus
5	Bulgaria
6	China
7	Luxembourg
8	Georgia
9	Moldova
10	Azerbaijan
11	Great Britain
12	Ireland
13	Malta
14	Andorra
15	Albania
16	Armenia

Teams advanced to the 2nd phase of qualification for EURO 2020

Statistics

Rank	Name	Team	Goals	Shots	%
Top goalscorers Rank Name Team Goals Shots % 1 Svetlin Dimitrov Bulgaria 65 92 71 2 Maxim Butenko Azerbaijan 55 84 65 3 Roman Zacaciurin Moldova 54 86 63 4 Julios Argyrou Cyprus 51 72 71 5 Wang Juncheng China 49 95 52 6 Dinu Untu Moldova 45 63 71 7 Martin Muller Luxembourg 44 71 62 8 Joshua Krohn Grace Ireland 43 85 51 9 Igli Shingjini Albania 42 92 46 10 Brian Negrete Lindsay Great Britain 40 63 63 Source:	Top goalkeepers Rank Name Team % Saves Shots 1 Eliesar Rubeksen Faroe Islands 68 23 34 2 Antonis Papayiannis Cyprus 54 13 24 3 Ion Saharnean Moldova 45 51 113 4 Armir Agushi Kosovo 41 24 59 5 Mehmet Emre Turkey 40 42 106 6 Mihail Penev Bulgaria 39 52 134 7 Coşkun Göktepe Turkey 35 45 127 8 Liu Maike China 34 50 146 9 Ivan Ivanov Bulgaria 33 42 126 Jan Pauli Johannesen Faroe Islands 60 180 Alexander Bradley Great Britain 48 144 Source:
1	Svetlin Dimitrov	Bulgaria	65	92	71
2	Maxim Butenko	Azerbaijan	55	84	65
3	Roman Zacaciurin	Moldova	54	86	63
4	Julios Argyrou	Cyprus	51	72	71
5	Wang Juncheng	China	49	95	52
6	Dinu Untu	Moldova	45	63	71
7	Martin Muller	Luxembourg	44	71	62
8	Joshua Krohn Grace	Ireland	43	85	51
9	Igli Shingjini	Albania	42	92	46
10	Brian Negrete Lindsay	Great Britain	40	63	63
Rank	Name	Team	%	Saves	Shots
1	Eliesar Rubeksen	Faroe Islands	68	23	34
2	Antonis Papayiannis	Cyprus	54	13	24
3	Ion Saharnean	Moldova	45	51	113
4	Armir Agushi	Kosovo	41	24	59
5	Mehmet Emre	Turkey	40	42	106
6	Mihail Penev	Bulgaria	39	52	134
7	Coşkun Göktepe	Turkey	35	45	127
8	Liu Maike	China	34	50	146
9	Ivan Ivanov	Bulgaria	33	42	126
Jan Pauli Johannesen	Faroe Islands	60	180
Alexander Bradley	Great Britain	48	144