We were placed in an exciting group at the men’s handball European Championship

The Hungarian team advanced from the qualifiers as group leader with five wins and one loss, so it was in the second hat in the draw, and finally it was placed in the most balanced four out of the six.

The tournament will take place between January 10 and 28. The first two places in each group will advance to the semi-finals, where they will take their results against the other advancing team with them. The semi-final groups will be hosted by Cologne (ABC branch) and Hamburg (DEF branch), while the semi-finals, qualifiers and the final will be played in Cologne.

We beat Iceland at the World Cup (Photo: MKSZ/Anikó Kovács)

This will be the 16th men’s continental tournament and the 14th in which the Hungarian national team will also participate. His best result so far is the sixth place in 1998, and the worst is the most recent 15th place in January of last year. Out of their three opponents, the Hungarians last met Iceland: at the World Championship in January, the best of the northern island country led by six goals, but in the end, Máté Lékai won 30-28.

I wouldn’t be honest if I said that I was happy, because our situation could be a little easier.” – said team captain Roland Mikler after the draw on the M1 current channel. He added that the European handball championship is the number one and most difficult world competition, so it was in the cards that the Hungarians would be placed in a very difficult group. The goalkeeper of defending champion Szeged noted that this tournament will be extremely important for their opponents in order to reach the Olympic qualifying places, so they will certainly do everything to achieve the best possible result.

Since the Hungarians have already qualified for next spring’s Olympic qualifiers with their appearance in the quarterfinals of the World Championship, the continental tournament can be a very serious and very good test of strength for the national team. I am sure that whatever results are achieved will only benefit the team and our development – declared Mikler, who has been selected 238 times. At the event in Düsseldorf, it was announced that Group C, which has Hungarian interests, will be hosted by Munich.

The group schedule:

Group A (Düsseldorf, Berlin): Germany, France, North Macedonia, Switzerland
Group B (Mannheim): Croatia, Spain, Austria, Romania
Group C (Munich): Iceland, HungarySerbia, Montenegro
Group D (Berlin): Norway, Slovenia, Poland, Faroe Islands
Group E (Mannheim): Sweden, Netherlands, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia
Group F (Munich): Denmark, Portugal, Czech Republic, Greece