Mens EHF EURO 2016 Poland - Final Tournament

[karel]

Great matches so far, a lot of close games, no walkovers...! Germany-Sweden, Spain-Slovenia - .

B. Jurecki injured again. Bad news for Poland. Jurecki will be replaced by Gębala.
Who's going to shoot 7m now? That's the question...

[Mr. 007]

Norway with full pot

4 points and future looks really bright indeed Best player our gk espen christensen, but close to him Christian O'sullivan that could have played for Great Britain of all...



Biggest surprise today was however Poland that won over France and became groupwinner with 4 points. Wow, we are meeting them on Saturday and what a match that will be in Poland

Congratz all .

[Ivar]

LOL goodbye Euro, goodbye Rio and goodbye Aron Kristjansson. Hopefully we can convince Alfred Gislason to manage the team again.

[karel]

Wohoho... We beat France. At last! Szmal and Bielecki Krajewski and Syprzak
I don't remember when we defeated France for the last time. I was a child that time - that's for sure. We finally played a really good handball in this tournament.
I'm sorry for Iceland, but that's nice, that Norway qualified for the main phase. And Belarus - the second round is also something for this team.
As I supposed Macedonia went to the next round and their game against Serbia was full of emotions till the end. This time Macedonians had stronger nerves and luck. Congrats.

[Marco Aurelio]

Wohoho... We beat France. At last! Szmal and Bielecki Krajewski and Syprzak
I don't remember when we defeated France for the last time. I was a child that time - that's for sure. We finally played a really good handball in this tournament.
I'm sorry for Iceland, but that's nice, that Norway qualified for the main phase. And Belarus - the second round is also something for this team.
As I supposed Macedonia went to the next round and their game against Serbia was full of emotions till the end. This time Macedonians had stronger nerves and luck. Congrats.

Congrats Poland! Well done! Superb performance
They have a huge chance of winning this ECh, or at least to qualify for the Olympics finishing behind France on the 2nd spot.
I predict you'll have at least 2 superb teams in Rio to cheer for, Bartosz Kurek and co won't have problems in qualifying either, I believe.

[karel]

Bartosz Kurek and co won't have problems in qualifying either, I believe.

So do I, although qualification system in volleyball is really crazy...

[Rammy]

Great win for Poland. I thought they did a lot of things right, and that France was below par, but you still need Szmal playing at his best to beat them. I wonder what Denmark and Spain will make of it. They have both been very keen to finish first in order to avoid the French. I still think they are more scared of France than of Poland, but it could be a mistake.

Poland were perhaps fortunate not to have Michal Jurecki red-carded for a clumsy elbow but it was so late in the game that it hardly mattered. But he is very important to them. I was also impressed by Krajewski. Thought he added a dimension to their game they didn't have before. Polish Wing-play have been pretty unimpressive in the past. And Glinski and Konitz have done quite well in the middle when called upon. Any chance that Jaszka will be back for Rio? Then we are talking precious metals!

So, Serbia and Iceland are going home. No Surprise that Serbia missed out, but they did quite well. Losing or drawing on last second shots against Poland and Macedonia was no shame. This team got clobbered by Iceland in the qualifiers with Vujin and Ilic present, now looked more than decent without them. They will be stronger next time, i.e in 2018. Worlds will be difficult given that they will be unseeded.

Iceland will be the Biggest failure regardless of who else goes home, but they were probably overrated. I mean, they haven't had a result against a contender in a game that mattered to both teams since 2010. And they will now have to rebuild, many of their star players will retire, and there is little coming through. The youth squad did very well this summer, so there might be something there eventually, but the immediate future looks bleek. And unless Slovenia loses and Montenegro gets max one point, they will be unseeded in the Worlds. So it may not just be good-bye to Rio, but to 2017 as well. I think Serbia have a far better chance of being in Euro 2018.

One more thought about Iceland: Ivar, you want Gislason back? Did he really do that well with the national team? And he publicly stated pre-Beijing that he wouldn't have picked Gustavsson. Patrekur Johannesson might be a better choice.

[gergő]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_cont ... K3wxoygbcs

round 2 tonite. cant wait.

[kleber]

Russia should had won against Denmark in my opinion.

They were the best team in group D.

[Mr. 007]

Russia should had won against Denmark in my opinion.

They were the best team in group D.

31-25...really?

[kleber]

Russia should had won against Denmark in my opinion.

They were the best team in group D.

31-25...really?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niklas_Landin_Jacobsen

he won the game alone,first half russia should be leading by 3 or 4.

[Ivar]

Iceland will be the Biggest failure regardless of who else goes home, but they were probably overrated. I mean, they haven't had a result against a contender in a game that mattered to both teams since 2010. And they will now have to rebuild, many of their star players will retire, and there is little coming through. The youth squad did very well this summer, so there might be something there eventually, but the immediate future looks bleek. And unless Slovenia loses and Montenegro gets max one point, they will be unseeded in the Worlds. So it may not just be good-bye to Rio, but to 2017 as well. I think Serbia have a far better chance of being in Euro 2018.

One more thought about Iceland: Ivar, you want Gislason back? Did he really do that well with the national team? And he publicly stated pre-Beijing that he wouldn't have picked Gustavsson. Patrekur Johannesson might be a better choice.

He was decent. I know getting him back will be impossible without him quitting Kiel first, so that's just a pipe dream at the moment. Our handball federation probably wouldn't be able to afford him anyways, and same goes for most of our other top coaches (probably including Patrekur, but he's busy with Austria anyways). Geir Sveinsson is being talked about as the primary candidate right now.

I'm just waiting for the post-95 generation to finally enter the national team, I have very high hopes for them. And they can't come soon enough, because the 85-90 generation that was supposed to succeed the golden generation got REALLY k**f by injuries. Don't expect much from Iceland until maybe five years from now.

Also, we got the WCh seed! I swear Dagur Sigurdsson is a God or something. Ideally he should get the team to build the next generation since that is his biggest strength, but I doubt the germans will let him go anytime soon.

[Rammy]

Is there a goalkeeper in that post-95 team? I have never seen a really good keeper from Iceland. Gustavsson is decent, and good at times, but Edvardsson is really Poor.

Watching Spain right now, and although Spain is my second home, I really do not like the way they play the game. Sometimes they just give it to Aguinagalde and he gets at least a penalty regardless of whether there is defending inside or not. And has Tomas ever shot before he landed inside the area? He has made a career out of referees not being able to see if a player is down or not. It is not difficult to screw the ball if you are standing inside! Abalo or Sigurdsson do not and are far superior players in my opinion.

[Ivar]

I've actually heard of there being two promising keepers in there, but I have to question the standards we hold our goalkeepers to, so we'll see... most of the hype has been around the outfield players. Some of them have been tearing up the Icelandic league recently, and one (Egill Magnússon) has already moved to Denmark.

[karel]

Any chance that Jaszka will be back for Rio?

No chance, unfortunatelly...

[kleber]

Stupid Russia,bye bye Rio....no way they can get points from german and spain games.

Sweden and Norway will go to the qual tournaments

[Mixball]

Stupid Russia,bye bye Rio....no way they can get points from german and spain games.

Sweden and Norway will go to the qual tournaments

Cheer up, maybe Spain doesn't need a win in that last match and play it in relax mode.
But I agree - those stupid last minutes by Russia shouldn't be rewarded at all.

[Mr. 007]

Russia k**f up, but they have still a chance to get to olympics after all. They are not that bad

[Mr. 007]

I fear Poland...homecourt and all sold out....16.000? It doesn't look good, and this is the team that beat France as well...jesus...is it even possible at all?

[sinok]

France was really underwhelming in that game. Not to say shitty.

So cheer up.

[Divi]

I fear Poland...homecourt and all sold out....16.000? It doesn't look good, and this is the team that beat France as well...jesus...is it even possible at all?

Big congratulations, what an amazing game by Norway. Looking forward to the game agains us on monday, probably the first time you go in to a match as favorite (possibly against Belarus to). Win on monday and the semi-final comes very close.

[Ivar]

Fantastic result by Norway! OGC spot is now practically guaranteed and semifinals even look within reach. They just have to seal the deal against Macedonia now.

[karel]

Bielecki - 10 goals, Jurecki -9. But it was not enough, especially with such a weak wings and goalkeeping by our side.

This is the best Norway I have ever seen... Congratulations.

Our situation was great, but now is only so-so. However, everything is still possible: four teams in the game

[fmj]

HEIA NORGE!

A great achievement for this team, a great win. I'm still in shock.

[Mr. 007]

Shocker

Poland was leading 6-3 the first 10 minutes, in an arena that was not really for any other teams to be in... Well, we are used to a slow start from our men, but that they actually came back and took charge was unreal in these hostile environment, against such a good team too

Poland came back in the end, and now it was make or break...AND THEY MADE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!



CONGRATULATIONS BOYS - After so many years "almost there", you are here now, and it's so sweet, even Bjarte Myrhol had blank eyes after the match