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When one team wins the first leg by 4-0, it's usually risky to go for a convincing win in the second leg due to relaxed attitude and possible decisions to spare some players for the next game. However, there are many elements in this fixture that say that the hosts will not settle for anything here and that they will try to get another convincing win. Grodig are a team that had their top-flight debut in the last season of the Austrian league and they are already going full-speed in all competitions. They have been unstoppable in friendlies and scored 10 goals in last 2 prep games (Burghausen 5-1, Košice 5-0), then crushed a lower-division team Leobendorf in a Cup game by 7-1, then won by 4-0 in Belgrade, and got a 1-1 draw in a tough away game against Austrian Wien. The atmosphere couldn't be better and the players will be very motivated as they have never played in a European competition. On the other hand, Čukarički are still going through the preparations and their team consists mostly of 21-22 year old players and they admit they can't match the Austrians. Their only foreign player, and their most experienced defender at that, Lucas Piasentin, will be missing through suspension, along with their only experienced forward Mirosavljević. The morale of the Serbian team is very low and it's hard to expect anything from them. That's why I expect Grodig to win by at least two goals. Details

After taking 12th and 13th spot in last two years, France have changed a big part of their team and their entire coaching staff. They're very motivated and pumped up to show that they can do more. They are very optimistic and are on a mission and they have become much stronger in defense. The coach of the world champions has warned everyone about France and seeing how they're playing against a team without their main star and best player (middle-back Sagosen) and first-choice keeper and a left-back, betting on France is a must. Details

The fact is that Hungary are slightly better than on the last WC but the Slovenians are also stronger by two starting players: pivot Blagotinšek, who's been one of the most dominant players in this generation, and left-handed Janc on the right-back spot. Even without them, they were close to reaching the WC semifinals and Hungary was miles away from this feat, so I don't think it's realistic to expect a tight game here. Another plus for Slovenia is that they can send Gjerek to his natural middle-back position, and Lapajne can shift to left, which gives them plenty of options for rotations. The only thing Slovenia are afraid of is the toughness of Hungarian players but if they were able to match Iran's senior team (and those types of teams play a really hard and dirty game), I see no reason why they shouldn't be able to do so today. In fact, I think Hungary should be afraid of Slovenia's agility as they have shown they are pretty slow which often results in a lot of sending-offs. Considering how easily Slovenia create excellent chances with extra man, this could be another segment of their game that could help them get a convincing win. Details

I think the odds here are set wrong and only due to results of these two teams from two years ago, and not due to quality of these teams. France won the silver medal on that tournament while Lithuania ended as the eleventh-placed team. However, Lithuania won the head-to-head then and the reason is simple - Domantas Sabonis. The Lithuanian tower is so powerful in the block and rebounds that he closes down the paint and we know France don't win games with perimeter shots. That's what I expect today and I think Lithuania will do much better than two years ago. This is at least a 50-50 game, and I would personally put Lithuania as the favorites. Details

It's well known that coach Đukić's teams play a fast-paced game, but this Israeli squad has been so fast that they even surprised the Danes who play a pretty fast game. But , wethe Danes play a good defense, that's not the case with Israel so they conceded 34 and 40 goals against them, and 41 and 46 against Germany. They only team that scoredunder 30 was Slovakia (29) but they conceded 36 the next day. Apart from Germany and Denmark, the attack that Sweden have is one possibly the best here and them conceding close to 40 goals again is a very likely scenario. On the other hand, the Israeili attack was solid and they scored 27 and 23 goals against Germany, 25 against Denmark, 23 and 38 against Slovakia. The only match they flopped was against Denmark when they were stopped at 17 goals but the Danes had an ax to grind that day as they were unhappy with their performance the previous day. The Swedes don't have anything to prove against Israel and I honestly don't think they could crush them in defense if they wanted. Their defense is not compact, and some crucial players are missing. They conceded 29, 29, 38 and 32 goals in friendlies and it's interesting to not that their coach Karlsson has never commented their poor defense. This is nothing strange for him as he prefers fast-paced games and his team will probably accept Israel's run'n'gun game as this suits his team. Details

Two years ago, this generation of Spanish players played impossible handball with a 1-5 defense, but since their games usually ended in 80 goals, the coach didn't make it through. Martinez's arrival put the emphasis on defense and they arrived here with certain attacking problems and this domain was not working too well in the friendlies. They won their last one against Qatar by 20-19, and 4 out of 6 friendlies went under 52.5 points. On the other hand, Macedonia has major attacking problems as well, they don't have the necessary depth and they are too reliant on two players (Talevski and Manaskov), while they score 21 goals in both of their friendlies against Serbia. They passed the qualifications with 3 games with under 52.5 and the crucial game against Iceland ended in 21-15. There won't be so few goals today but under 52.5 is still worth taking. Details

BiH will have tough task maintaining their Division A status. They didn't do too well in the friendlies. They lost against Montenegro (Division B last year) by 54-88, 52-62, and 49-69 and got one 72-70 win. At the Albert Schweitzer tournament, they lost against Spain by -30, against France by -29...Most of their players have spent last few years playing in Division B for cadets. Greece have had very good preparations. They won all 5 games, including the one against Spain in Spain. They beat the English by some 40 points on 2 occasions, they beat Italy in Italy. They beat Bosnia last year by 27 points and they seem even stronger as they have filled their teams with the best five players from the team that won the bronze medal in the cadet competition. They kept their coach Papatheodorou from last year and he knows it's important to get a good start of the tournament. They slipped up at the start last year and now they want to leave a better impression. Details