Exciting group D headlines action-packed Sunday
Groups B, D and F prepare for their second games of the Men's EHF EURO 2026 preliminary round. After Portugal and Denmark secured dominant wins at Jyske Bank Boxen arena in Herning, North Macedonia and Romania are aiming to surprise the group B favourites.
The second day of matches in group D sees Montenegro meeting the Faroe Islands and Switzerland taking on Slovenia. The group has so far seen two thrillers, resulting in three of the four teams holding points in their account.
In group F, Poland and Italy will try to end their losing streaks against their group rivals, Iceland and Hungary, respectively.
GROUP B
North Macedonia vs Portugal
Sunday 18 January, 18:00 CET, live on EHFTV
H2H: 4-0-6
- the Macedonian coach, Kiril Lazarov, hopes to welcome back the starting goalkeeper Nikola Mitrevski and line player Zharko Peshevski in the squad after the pair missed their opening match due to minor injuries
- Filip Kuzmanovski scored four goals against Denmark and moved just a couple of goals away from breaking into the all-time top five goalscorers of the Macedonian national team in their EHF EURO history; he now sits in sixth place with 47 goals
- this is the first meeting between the two at an EHF EURO tournament, although they met in the EHF EURO 2024 Qualifiers, with the Portuguese coming out on top in the group and victorious both home and away against the Macedonians
- the Macedonians, with an average age of 26, and the "Heróis do Mar", with an average age of 25, boast one of the youngest squads in the tournament
- António Areia is now joint-second in Portugal's all-time EHF EURO list for players with the most EHF EURO appearances, 19
- only a couple of Portuguese players did not get on the scoresheet in their opening win against Romania, displaying the quality in squad depth
We were good in defence against Denmark, but we lacked fluidity in attack, and that's an area to improve and I believe that we will do that against Portugal. They are fast, but not as Denmark are in my opinion, we are ready and I hope we will delight the Macedonian fans and public.
This will be a different match, because North Macedonia have a lot of players with big quality in attack. It will be harder than against Romania. They played a really good first half against Denmark. We need to do our job, and if we want to pass to the main round we need to win against North Macedonia. It will be hard, but we have the quality.
For us it is a match when we face a very strong opponent. Denmark are the big favourites of the competition. We will see how top handball is played and we gain more experience as much as you can.
We know Romania is a good team and they come with a lot of physicality. We watched some videos today and I didn't know so much about them, but they have a lot of physicality and we have to be ready in defence and it's going to be a hot game.
It’s always going to be a lot different than Switzerland, because you never really know with this kind of teams, like Montenegro. There's always one player who has a really good day, usually, or several. So, I think it's also depends on the day more — I mean, Switzerland were playing really tactical also, but it's, like, a little bit more on the day, I would say, against a team like Montenegro.
I think Uroš Zorman was one of the best playmakers in the world and now he's an unbelievable good coach. I have big respect for him also, and that's why we have to be on a really, really high level to have a chance to win.
The Swiss showed that it's really good team. They have a lot of good players, so it will be really difficult. But I believe in my team and we have to show again a big fight, a lot of energy and I hope that we will win the match.
They improve a lot every year. They have very good players. They have the chance to go to the semi-finals, but it’s a long tournament, and maybe they won’t be as good as they were yesterday. However, it is important to focus on us to play as best as possible. We want to stay close as long as possible, and in handball, there is always potential for surprises.
If you don't get the Hungarian defence moving, it won't be easy. We have to be bold in front of goal and force them to move. Playing with four back-court players is certainly an effective tactic to achieve that.
