Last eight teams secure Men's EHF EURO 2026 tickets
The last eight tickets to the Men's EHF EURO 2026 were secured on Sunday night as phase 2 of the Qualifiers came to an end.
North Macedonia, Serbia, Austria and Poland all booked their places in the final tournament by finishing second in their groups. Meanwhile Romania, Italy, Switzerland and Ukraine are confirmed as the four best third-placed teams, and will also head to the final tournament in Denmark, Norway and Sweden next year.
Honestly, before the start of the qualifiers for the EHF EURO 2026, we didn't expect six wins and thus a perfect result. But in the first two qualifying cycles, we did what was necessary. In the last one, we were also able to give a chance to the younger generation of Slovenian handball players. I think this is an excellent thing for our future. I'm happy for that.
Slovenia are a very strong team, so we had to prepare for them primarily from a tactical standpoint. At the beginning, we played too fast, made mistakes and missed some important opportunities. We are not satisfied with the result, but I believe we played a very good and smart game.
I am very proud that I can be the captain of the national team today for the first time. The youngsters already know our system well, so we have a good cooperation on the field. We won our group with an unbeaten campaign and it was important for us.
We started the game quite well, but Hungary are a way better team than us, they built a bigger difference and won with confidence. We reached four points in this qualification series, more than previously. We have a young team with a good coach, I hope we will be better and better.
The players had full availability, which gave us the opportunity to rotate frequently and secure a comfortable victory. There is clear progress since the start of these qualifiers. We showed our strength and now we await the draw, after which we will begin preparing for our opponents at the EHF EURO 2026.
What I take away from this is the concentration and focus of the boys. I've asked for this in this qualifiers, both here at home and at the away games. In all the games, except maybe the first game against Bosnia and Herzegovina, we started extremely strong. I just feel that people show up focused on these tasks.
It was my last game with the national team after 17 years. The emotions are indescribable. It is a supreme honor to play for your country and it cannot be compared to anything. Every time I hear the national anthem, I shiver. It is true that many thoughts are going through my mind right now. I want to say a big thank you to everyone and to my teammates who really gave everything so that my term could end with a victory.
We had one of the toughest groups. We only lost one game, achieved great results, and what better way to end the phase than in Huesca, where I played, and I’m very grateful to the fans for their support and for how everything turned out. We only have words of gratitude for the fans, and we hope to come back soon.
Congratulations to Spain on their victory. For us, the game felt very long; after the exceptional match earlier this week against Serbia, where the team gave everything, today we couldn't compete against Spain. We have a young team and this is a long-term process.
I would like to congratulate these great guys who deservedly qualified for the European Championship. In the first half, we had a little problem with the execution, but in the second half we made up for it with the help of the great Vladimir Cupara and Lazar Kukic, who showed that he is the brain of the game of this generation. I have to praise the players in defence because when they attack you one on one for 60 minutes, it is extremely demanding. I am very satisfied that we are again in a big competition, which was the goal.
This was a very difficult and demanding match. Both teams played at a high level and demanded that their opponents give their best. The crowd gave Serbia a boost in the second half, but also a great goalkeeper against whom we missed 17 shots in the second half. Nevertheless, we are celebrating, after 28 years we returned to the European Championship and we cannot be dissatisfied.
We didn't have enough concentration. But I was quite happy with how we played, especially with the defence and Dominik Kuzmanovic was really good at the beginning, but our shooting was not good enough. I was happy with how we played, but the shooting wasn't good enough.
We knew it would be very hard against Croatia, but we tried our best to make the ball go fast and to defend hard against them, At the beginning it worked well, but as the match went along, we were losing strength. But we are happy with the game and how we played.
Mentally it was tough, we had to get into the game and we did. From my point of view it was not difficult to motivate the team. It's an honour to play for the national team in front of such a big crowd. It wasn't hard. But we had some mental mistakes. Our biggest problem was our efficiency in attack.
A very difficult match. The Czechs have small and fast players, we played with the players we currently have because we had a lot of injuries. The team played well together. Maybe if we didn't make mistakes we would have done something but it was very difficult, we played a good game.
This was out of this world! Our fans really carry us and give us an extra gear. This has been a fantastic qualification tournament for us and our team just keeps on getting better.
We knew that this was going to be a difficult game. The Faroe Islands have a very strong fan support and home ground and this was an amazing atmosphere. We are not so happy about our game, but we are very happy that we came through and qualified.
I’m pleased we took four points in the last two games. I think we were playing quite good. That is making me happy for the future. This game was a little bit tough in the beginning but overall we are pleased and looking forward to playing the European championships.
We played well for the first 20 minutes. We were more focused than the last match against the Faroe Islands. But the match against the Netherlands, I live in Belgium and I know all the players, but we tried to get a better result, but the result didn't follow because Holland is stronger.
I knew it would be tough today, but the boys did really well. The motivation was there and you could tell straight away that it was going to be a good game. The team spirit won today. I'm very emotional now. I was afraid that we would lose this game and that we wouldn't qualify. That would have been terrible. It's the perfect end. It's been a wonderful six years. We've really made a difference in Austria, as the full halls in recent years show.
So soon after the game, I'm still disappointed that we didn't push ourselves to the limit today. But I only want to see smiling faces on the bus at least. We're going to the European Championship. Again!
This was a very important match for us! We managed to secure second place in the group and that’s the most important thing. The loss to Israel was very difficult for us, but today I am happy with the result and with my players. Now we must continue working, because there are still many things to improve. Until almost the end of the match, I didn’t know the result of the Israel versus Portugal game. We wanted to stay fully focused on ourselves and just win!
Until the end of the match, we didn’t know what the situation was in the other games. Only before the last throw did the coach tell us. We lost the match, but we are going to the EURO. I don’t know if something like this will ever happen again, so we really wanted to win! I’m happy, but the loss will definitely stay in our minds. At one point, we managed to make up a big deficit, but today’s handball is so intense that you make a lot of mistakes. Whoever makes fewer mistakes, wins.
