News The two teams that have dominated men's Olympic handball in the last 20 years, France and Croatia, will go head-to-head in the group stages of Rio 2016   The handball draw at the Future Arena on Friday (29 April) put both countries, each with two Olympic gold medals to their name, in the same pool France, champions at Beijing 2008 and London 2012, have a historic rivalry with Croatia, gold at Atlanta 1996 and Athens 2004 The French broke Croatian hearts in the final of the 2009 world championships held in Croatia and then defeated them again at the semi-final stage of London 2012; Croatia went on to pick up the bronze medal Become an expert on handball with our interactive infographic Also in Group A are Denmark, losing finalists to France at the European championships in 2014 and European champions in 2012, and rising power Qatar, silver medallists at the 2015 world championships, where they lost to none other than France Rounding out the group are Tunisia and Argentina As host country, Brazil had the right to choose which group to enter when all the other names except Brazil and the defending champion had been chosen Brazil chose to enter the less daunting Group B, joining London 2012 silver medallists Sweden and European champions Germany Poland, bronze in the 2015 world championships, Slovenia and Egypt make up the group   The handball tournament will start on 6 August  The top four teams from each group will qualify for the quarter-finals   Brazilian women make bold call In the women's competition, Brazil are strong medal contenders on home soil, especially after winning an unprecedented world championship in 2013 In confident mood, coach Morten Soubak, a Danish national who now lives in Brazil, decided that the host country would join a tough-looking Group A, which includes the gold, silver and bronze medallists from London 2012: Norway, Montenegro and Spain respectively Also in the group are Romania, bronze medallists at the 2015 world championships, and Angola “The level of each team is so high that each match will be decided on the day” Morten Soubak, coach of the Brazilian women side Brazil's first match will be against defending Olympic, world and European champions Norway "I am certain that we are ready to start the Olympic Games well," Soubak said "I hope playing at home will be very positive for us Our players love playing in Brazil ” Brazilian handball legend Zezé Sales participated in the draw with Rio 2016 sport director Rodrigo Garcia (Photo: Rio 2106) “Our group is a bit more difficult We didn't expect Brazil to take Group A, but it will make for a very interesting tournament” Emir Beslija, secretary general of Handball Montenegro Group B of the women's tournament includes the Netherlands, the silver medallists behind Norway in the world championships, and European bronze medallists Sweden  France,  Argentina, Russia and Republic of Korea are the other teams in Group B     Test event The Future Arena in Barra Olympic Park will be the location for all of the handball matches in the Rio 2016 Games  After the completion of the draw, four Brazilian club teams inaugurated the venue in a short competition that will end on Sunday Daniela Coelho, handball manager at Rio 2016, said the event would test the playing surface, scoring system and display, the technical officials and volunteers “Teams have already been training at the Future Arena and have given it their thumbs-up” Daniela Coelho, handball manager at Rio 2016 After the end of the Olympic Games, the Future Arena will be dismantled and its parts will be used to construct four public schools in Rio, thanks to the innovative ‘nomadic architecture’ technique