Heading into the final round of Group C matches today it was a complicated picture with three teams still in the hunt for two places in the next stage after Croatia had already secured their spot in the main round.

Serbia needed to beat Croatia to advance and lost narrowly after a thrilling contest by one goal 25-24.

A nip and tuck match throughout was dead level at the break at 14-14 before Croatia edged the contest in Kolding by one goal.

The top performer on the day was Croatia's Dora Krsnik with six goals.

Serbia's fate was not sealed at this point as a win for The Netherlands in the later game against Hungary could help them sneak through on goal difference.

World champions The Netherlands needed to win to avoid elimination themselves and prevailed 28-24.

The results of the final round of games in the group meant three teams finished on two points - Serbia, The Netherlands and Hungary.

Serbia finished bottom with a goal difference of -9, with The Netherlands qualifying in third with a goal difference of -2 and Hungary qualifying in second place with a goal difference of +6.

Group winners Croatia finished with a perfect three wins from three games and a haul of six points.

In Group A the picture heading into the final round of games was more straight forward with France and Denmark already through, and Slovenia and Montenegro going head-to-head to decide who joined them in the main round.

The crunch match was another tightly contested affair with Montenegro edging the match in Herning by one goal 26-25.

Slovenia opened up a 15-9 lead at the break but survived a Montenegro fightback was enough for them to triumph by one goal.

The top performer on the day was Montenegro's Jovanka Radicevic with nine goals. 

In the second match of the day between two already qualified teams France beat hosts Denmark 23-20.

The French topped the group with a perfect three wins from three and a haul of six points.

Denmark finished second in the group with four points with Slovenia finishing third with two points.

The tournament now takes a rest day before the main group stage.

Points earned against teams that advance through to the next stage are carried through meaning teams start the next stage with different points tallies.

In the main round, teams then play those sides in their group that they did not play during the preliminary round stage.

In Main Group I the teams involved are Russia and France, who both start on four points, hosts Denmark, who start with two, Sweden and Spain, who both start with one point, and Montenegro, who start with zero points.

In Main Group II the teams involved are Norway and Croatia, who both start on four points, The Netherlands and Germany, who both start with two, and Hungary and Romania, who both start with zero points.

The first matches in Main Group I on Thursday (December 10), see Montenegro (zero points) play Russia (four points) and France (four points) face Spain (one point) while the first matches in Main Group II on the same day pit Croatia (four points) against Romania (zero points) and The Netherlands (two points) up against Norway (four points).