Bosnia and Herzegovina's handball players play a historic match: They could reach the European Championship even with a loss

(Patria) - Bosnia and Herzegovina's handball players are playing their last qualifying match for the EURO today, after which it will be known if the BiH team will play in the continental championship for the first time in history.

Bilal Šuman's squad is visiting favored Czech Republic in Ostrava.

The Dragons missed securing direct qualification for the EURO in front of their home crowd, after losing to Belarus in Tuzla's Mejdan on Wednesday.

With a win in Ostrava, BiH could even take first place in "Group 1", which would give them a privileged position in the draw for the EURO 2020 groups. However, this is the least likely scenario, as Belarus would also need to lose or draw at home against Finland, which is at the bottom of the table with no points. Nevertheless, a point or two against the Czech Republic would surely take the BiH team to the European Championship for the first time in history.

In case of a loss, the Dragons can still reach the EP as the third-placed team, but then results in other groups must align.

Bilal Šuman cannot count on the injured Dejan Malinović against the Czech Republic. Vladimir Vranješ, Marko Tarabochia, Tomislav Nuić, and Marin Vegar were previously ruled out.

"Instead of Malinović, who needs knee surgery, we brought Gafar Hadžiomerović. What can you do? It's hard to influence such things. However, the fact that we are weakened again does not mean we will give up in the Czech Republic. On the contrary, we will do everything to beat them and thus qualify for the European Championship thanks to our victory, rather than waiting for results from other groups," Šuman said from Ostrava and added:

"Of course, even in case of a loss, we have to think about the fact that every goal is important to us, because in the end, goal difference can be decisive in the ranking of third-placed teams."

The match Czech Republic - BiH, as well as all other matches of the sixth round of EURO qualifiers, will be played on Sunday starting at 6 PM (BHRT).

The European Championship will be played from January 9 to 26, 2020, in Vienna, Graz, Trondheim, Gothenburg, and Stockholm. The draw for the EURO 2020 groups will be held on June 28 at 6:45 PM in Vienna.