A comfortable 32-27 win at a sold-out Tauron Arena in Kraków moved Poland onto six points, level with defending champions France and one behind group leaders Norway, who drew 31-31 with Macedonia earlier in the day.

Filip Mirkulovski scored with just 90 seconds remaining to earn Macedonia a share of the spoils in a match which saw them squander a five-goal lead deep into the second half.

"We had a very good first half and 15 minutes of the second half," said Macedonian goalkeeper Borko Ristovski.

"I do not know why we always lose concentration in the end.

"We should have won that game earlier."

Eleven goals for Macedonia’s Kiril Lazarov saw him named player of the match, while Norway were led by Kristian Bjørnsen with six in his 50th international.

Croatia, who also still have an outside chance of qualifying for the semi-finals, play Poland on Wednesday (January 27) in the last of the Group I games. 

It follows France's crucial clash with Norway, which comes on the back of Macedonia's meeting with Belarus in a battle to avoid finishing bottom of the group. 

Group II is set to continue tomorrow as Spain face Hungary and Sweden go up against Denmark, with the winners of the tournament set to qualify for the Rio 2016 Olympics.

At the Asian Men’s Handball Championship in Bahrain, China beat Syria 31-24 to condemn their opponents to last place and set up a ninth place play-off against Lebanon on Wednesday. 

South Korea overcame the United Arab Emirates 32-23 and will now play Iran, 32-27 winners against Oman, in Wednesday’s fifth place play-off.

The UAE and Oman will contest seventh spot earlier the same day.

Tomorrow’s action sees the semi-finals take place as Qatar meet Saudi Arabia and Bahrain go up against Japan.

There were also six games at the African Men’s Handball Championship today as hosts Egypt extended their unbeaten run to four games by defeating Gabon 31-16. 

Algeria ensured their place in the semi-finals with a 34-27 win against Cameroon, as did Morocco by beating Nigeria 25-20.

Tunisia maintained their perfect record in Group B after claiming a 44-20 victory over Congo, and Angola also made it four wins out four thanks to a narrow 28-24 success against the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Libya finally got off the mark, claiming a 30-22 win against Kenya who remain winless.

All 12 teams are next scheduled to complete their group campaigns tomorrow.