Preparation ramps up for EHF EURO 2022
With just over two months until the Men’s EHF EURO 2022 in Hungary and Slovakia, all 24 contenders will be relishing the opportunity to get some reps in together during this national team week.
We take a quick look at what each and every team have in store over the coming days, an important period of preparation to the championship on 13-30 January.
Golden boys
Trondheim was the centre of the handball world on Sunday as Kolstad announced the signing of Sander Sagosen among a number of Nordic stars and there will be many eyes on the Norwegian city again later this week with the Golden League.
Norway will face reigning world champions Denmark, freshly minted Olympic champions France and Netherlands in the four-team tournament on 4-7 November.
Reigning champions Spain will begin a new era with a plethora of new players in their squad to face Romania in Avilés on Thursday and Saturday.
The sensation of EHF EURO 2020, Portugal, begin a busy week of matches in an unlikely location – Luxembourg. They take on the Grand Duchy on Wednesday and stay there for a Friday evening clash with Germany. Germany and Portugal meet again on Sunday in Düsseldorf as part of Germany’s ‘Day of handball’.
Sweden welcome fellow World Championship 2023 hosts Poland for a pair of matches on 4 and 6 November in Malmö and Kristianstad.
Casting an eye towards the home nations, Hungary welcome Bosnia Herzegovina to Érd for a match on 5 November, while Slovakia face Serbia in Šala on the same night, followed by a repeat on Saturday in Bratislava.
Neighbours collide
Croatia and Slovenia will meet in a test match on Saturday 6 November in the Istrian city of Novigrad.
Austria and Czech Republic are familiar sparring partners and will renew that familiarity with a match in each country on Friday and Sunday.
In another neighbourly double-header, Belarus and Russia clash on 5 and 6 November in Minsk.
Lithuania prepare for their first EHF EURO final tournament in 24 years with two games in 24 hours in Vilnius against Latvia.
Africa calling
North Macedonia’s player-coach Kiril Lazarov is set for a stern pre-EURO test this week as his side head to Cairo to face Egypt, one of the outstanding teams of 2021, in a double-header on 5 and 6 November.
Their group A rivals Montenegro also head towards northern Africa, Tunisia to be precise, as they take part in a four-nation tournament on 4-6 November with Switzerland, Tunisia and Cape Verde the opponents.
While some sides are taking the adventurous route, a pair of teams are enjoying some time to themselves.
Iceland coach Guðmundur Guðmundsson has decided to remain behind closed doors this week and brings 21 players together for a week of training, while Michael Biegler’s first taste of coaching Ukraine will be a full week of training in Hungary, where they will be competing in January’s preliminary round.
