Home teams dominate as Qualifiers open with goal records
Round 1 of the Men’s EHF EURO 2028 Qualifiers got underway Wednesday with a clear victory for the home team in seven of the eight matches. A narrow one-goal win for Czechia over Israel (27:26) in group 5 was the only exception. Croatia, the 2026 bronze medallists, improved their best mark for most goals scored in a Qualifier thanks to a 46:28 win over Lithuania in group 1. In the late matches, both Iceland and the Faroe Islands also broke their goals record when they defeated Ukraine 48:26 in group 3 and Kosovo 37:30 in group 4, respectively.
We are happy with the result and the performance. We scored a lot of goals from fast breaks, but we shouldn't get carried away by that. Our opponents are going through a generational change in their team, so it was a tough match for Lithuania. But I think we did very well.
“Croatia were the better team today. They were very strong from the beginning. They have an amazing team, and the atmosphere here in Split was also very good for them. We have to congratulate them and wish them all the best.
I’m very pleased today. We were really well organised in defence and showed a lot of quality. We had a few problems in attack at the start of the second half and missed a few shots, but I always felt the team was there for it. I can see that we’re developing from training camp to training camp, and in my opinion we’re on the right track. This win was very important. We’re now heading into the next match with plenty of confidence.
First of all congratulations to Austria. They have a really good team with great players. It was a great match. I'm really proud of my team and the way they were fighting today. We had some injured players, but as a team we are improving every day.
A strong start to the qualifiers. The players were focused from the first minute and the crowd in Laugardalshöll gave us energy all night. Now we recover and get ready for Estonia on Sunday.
We are happy with a seven-goal win against Kosovo at home. Our team played very well in a very high pace in the first half and we had the lead early in the game. We got to use the full squad and are will take a lot of positive performances with us to the away game against Montenegro on Sunday.
I am generally happy with the performance of the team. We are missing some key players and other players had to take on a bigger role and they did well. We had some problems in the first half in defence, but in the second half we were able to play on an even level with the Faroese. We have something to take with us and build on and look forward to the home match in the weekend against Hungary.
It’s a shame we didn’t reward the supportive crowd with a better score. But it’s a winning start to the qualifiers, and that’s what matters. The Israelis have good quality, so I’m glad we managed to get the job done. We all know how important this qualification is. The main thing is that we secured the win.
The first half was really difficult for us. We didn’t have fast breaks, we didn’t score that many goals. We weren’t comfortable. The second half on the other hand was better and much different. The one-on-one worked as we planned. We scored easy goals. But we still couldn’t get the victory.
Our goal was a win. We took the game extremely seriously and decided it already in the first half. It's always great to play in a packed Bonifika arena in front of our home crowd. The two points are ours, we move on.
Slovenia deserved their victory. They capitalised on our technical mistakes, and it’s clear that we still have a lot of work ahead of us. It was a tough match, but congratulations to Slovenia. They have a very talented and high-quality team. We are at the beginning of a new chapter, with a very young squad that is still developing. I would also like to thank Koper for their warm hospitality and the Slovenian team for their fair play and sportsmanship. I wish them all the best in the rest of the qualifiers.”
The atmosphere was fantastic. It’s always great to play in venues packed to capacity with fans like these, you feel like you have wings. In the second half we lacked concentration and aggressiveness in defence, but fortunately we had a large goal cushion and comfortably secured the victory. We can be hopeful that the national team is developing and moving in the right direction.
The first struggle for our team was scoring in the first half. We couldn't really get those 100% chances that we needed to convert, and there was a lot of panic in our set attack. That was the main problem in the first half, though our defense was great.
I am pleased with our approach and level of engagement during the match, even though we didn't have much time to prepare. Many of our players had just played in a derby match on Sunday, and we also had to integrate a new player, Horiha, into the system, which was not easy.
We played against on great nation, nation that has great players and love handball and we know that it playing against them will be very difficult game because they have a lot of good players. We had very difficult start, we score only two goals in ten minutes, we were trying to come back in game but it was very difficult.
